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"It always seems that the Fascist Group is the better than the Communist group. Communism seems to draw the worst of men." - Charles Lindhberg, writing in his journal (1938) after attending a fascist rally in Britian
Charles was not nor never was a Nazi. After WWII, when he was in Japan and discovered a cave full of Japanese soldiers who had been slaughtered by US soldiers he was disgusted, sickened. Yet before the war, he had led an isolationist movement while advocating the US join up with Germany to combat Soviet Communism and the "yellow danger" of Japan and China. Its like he was unable to grasp the implications of what he was advocating. Remember that. The authoritarians don't realize they're authoritarians.
http://www.blogsforbush.com/mt/archives/2006/12/pinochet_is_dea.html
Dying at 91, 18 years after he voluntarily surrendered power when the people of Chile voted to end his rule.
Since the end of his rule, various leftwing groups have been after Pinochet to try him for crimes committed under his authority. None of these groups have made a move to indict Fidel Castro, and that is all anyone really needs to know about them.
...
His last crime was 18 years ago, and now he's explaining himself to God...what the left has to explain is why they hate Pinochet, who did end up midwifing Chile's vibrant democracy, but love Castro, who had killed far more, is continuing to kill people and who will only allow Cuban democracy over his cold, dead body.
Posted by: Mark Noonan at December 11, 2006 11:47 AM
Cyber,
Where in my post or comments do you get an apology for Pinochet? He was a brutal dictator and that he was forced out of power in 1988 was a glorious moment in the history of human liberty...now please explain why you don't condemn Castro in even harsher terms? After all, Pinochet's dictatorship only last 15 years, while Castro's HAS GONE ON FOR 47 YEARS!!! Pinochet is accused of presiding over a bit more than 3,000 political murders...Castro has murdered tens fo thousands. Where is the leftwing outrage?
Nonexistent, of course, because the left doesn't care about oppression and murder, as long as a leftist gets to be the oppressive murderer.
You guys on the left reveal volumes about yourselves all the time...
Posted by: Mark Noonan at December 11, 2006 04:27 PM
http://glenngreenwald.blogspot.com/2006/12/washington-posts-praise-for-augusto.html
Mark Noonan is just a loon right? Just an isolated semi/quasi/possibly actual fascist thats far outside of the mainstream, right? Then why is the Washington Post (a "Pulitzer for Treason" leftwing moonbat unhinged lefty treasonous propaganda rag according to movement conservatives like Limbaugh) sounding the same - nay - why does the Post sound MORE apologetic for Pinochet than Mark "Democrats are corrupt cockroaches, we should be lashing moral degenerates in public with a bullwhip" Noonan!?
http://glenngreenwald.blogspot.com/2006/12/washington-posts-praise-for-augusto.html
The Post even belittles the contempt expressed for Pinochet by claiming that it is due less to his murder and torture of political opponents -- that can't possibly be the real reason -- and is driven instead by the fact that "he helped to overthrow, with U.S. support, an elected president considered saintly by the international left: socialist Salvador Allende, whose responsibility for creating the conditions for the 1973 coup is usually overlooked."
So, with the Rush Limbaugh/National Review straw man in place (i.e., Pinochet is only hated in "some" circles because he was pro-U.S. and overthrew a darling of the socialist-anti-American-internationalist-left), the Post builds its case that Pinochet is, on balance, an admirable figure despite his bad points (murder, terrorism, torture): "It's hard not to notice, however, that the evil dictator leaves behind the most successful country in Latin America."
In Goldhagen's book on German eliminationism, he starts the book with a quote from a German officer who wrote a letter of outrage to his superior officer. He was shocked, insulted, and totally amazed that his superior would have the audacity to have suggested that he make his officers sign an aggreement pledging not to commit crime against Polish villagers. He answered, indignantly, his men were Germans of high character, it was outrageous to think that they would conduct themselves in anything other than the highest moral manner. Goldhagen points out that the officer was able to think this, and see no contradiction, despite his officers already having participated in mass killings of Jewish civilians.
That's what might end up being a bit of a problem ten or 15 years from now. When figures like Michelle Malkin can see Human Rights Watch as some sort of dangerous/extremist/thuggish/radical/far left organization it makes it easy for that person to not see its persecution.
