Posted on 12/15/2004 11:57:45 PM PST by nickcarraway
WASHINGTON -- Justice never sleeps. Or rather the free-floating moralism that is the left never sleeps. The other day a Chilean judge, Juan Guzman Tapia, decided that an 89-year-old man was competent to stand trial for human rights abuses, though it has been fourteen years since he left office, and when he did he handed his thitherto troubled country over to democrats and eventual prosperity. The 89-year-old man is, of course, General Augusto Pinochet, and his human rights abuses are not even reported in the newspapers as "alleged" human rights abuses. For the New York Times on Tuesday Guzman's decision was front-page news -- in fact, the day's major news story with a color picture of Guzman embraced by Pinochet's emotional opponents. The photograph dominated three columns! In the body of the Times' the word "communist" never appeared, only "Marxists." For all the untutored reader might know Pinochet's victims might have been the country's librarians or butterfly collectors.
That word, "Marxists," appeared in a quote from Pinochet who said a year ago on a Spanish-language television show: "everything I did I would do again. Who am I supposed to ask for forgiveness? They are the ones who have to ask me for forgiveness, them, the Marxists." The old boy came to power in 1973. For six months before he took over politicians and private citizens in large numbers had been imploring the military to deliver Chile from President Salvador Allende, a romantic and incompetent Marxist pseudo-intellectual who spent his last year in a drunken haze while economic chaos spread. For the next 17 years Pinochet, his military, and his secret police waged war against leftists, usually within Chile but occasionally abroad through a series of political assassinations. Pinochet's political assassinations were not as numerous as those practiced by Soviet satellite countries. Nor was his war as bloody as General Francisco Franco's war against communists and other leftists in the 1930s, but it was brutal enough to offend civil libertarians everywhere, including me.
Yet, like Franco, he did return his country to democracy. How many communists have done that? Moreover communism accounted for scores of millions of innocent victims in the twentieth century. Pinochet's regime allegedly accounted for 4,000, not all of them peace-loving progressives. How many has Fidel Castro murdered, tortured, and jailed? Today Castro remains a bloody tyrant and far more of a problem beyond his shores than the General with the absurd sun-glasses and the eighteenth century uniforms ever was. Finally, when Fidel ultimately croaks he will have left what was once the most prosperous country in Latin America in a heap. Are any of Pinochet's present-day tormentors demanding Castro's prosecution for crimes against humanity?
There are two points worth noting here. One is that the left -- whether communist or simply glassy-eyed reformist -- never tires in hunting down its enemies. The other is that its enemies are always on the right -- or at least the perceived right. The old Soviet Bloc countries are filled with retired brutes who did far more damage to the civil liberties and the prosperity of their countries than Pinochet ever did. There is no effort to prosecute these enemies of freedom commensurate with the effort against Pinochet.
If indeed the prosecution of Pinochet would elevate regard for human rights worldwide I would be among the first to celebrate Judge Guzman's decision. Yet it is not the opponents of Pinochet who have made great strides in the elevation of human rights worldwide. Rather it has been North Americans and Europeans, most notably the English-speaking peoples. Right now those people are leading the world in a struggle against tyrants who, unlike an 89-year-old retired general, can actually shoot back. How prominent have Pinochet's opponents been in the struggle against Islamofascism and the sadistic Saddam Hussein? The answer is not very. In fact, many of those cheering for Pinochet's neck today blithely lump Prime Minister Tony Blair and President George W. Bush into the same category they reserve for Pinochet.
There is a great deal of posturing about civil liberties and justice in the campaign against Pinochet. There is also something else. It is difficult to explain but it is observable. The left worldwide reserves its hostility for people on the right and for America and its allies, who are the real guarantors of the rights of man.
Pinosh*t deserves to hang for his crimes.
Pinochet conducted a war on terrorism--leftist terrorism.
He took extraordinary measures because they were required to defend his people against Marxists whose conduct knew no bounds.
It is an atrocity that the Marxists, having retured to power, are still hounding him.
That Pinochet turned around the country is an accident of meeting the Chicago boys - if not for that he would not be any kind of hero - his brand of social engineering, before the Boys brought them American economics, was as bad as Allende.
PS Your tag line should be a message to the spend and spend republicans who will soon find a new type of Term Limits.
Here are some links to articles in English.
http://ukinet.com/media/text/judas.htm
http://ukinet.com/media/text/dagmar3.htm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/1732776.stm
The again... many misguided youths hang around with Communist 'insurgents' in SA. Don't know if she was one. Could be a "wrong place, wrong time" thing.
Huh? Please explain.
And as to 'abuse of prisoners'. Well.. what they were playing down there wasn't exactly bean-bag. And a live commie WILL always come back to fight you - a dead one won't.
In short the guy IS a hero.
And if he was a stinking leftist there'd be statutes erected in his honor!
chicago boys are the economic gurus that studied at U of Chicago, when it still truned out Milton Friedman followers. These guys turned Chile into the best economy in S. America and a role model for private S.S. accounts for individuals. Without the ecomonic change Pinochet would have done to Chile what Lula is doing to Brazil.
Even the most liberal death counts from Pinochet are pretty low. I'm not going to defend everything his people did, but I'm glad he helped turn back communism.
Being born and raised in Chicago, when I see "Chicago Boys" I naturally think of the 'other' Chicago boys. And that confused me :-)
You are exactly correct. The 4000 "Democrats" who were killed are only a drop in the bucket compared to the number who would have died under the communist system. He is definitely a hero and the Leftists are merely attempting to extract revenge in the name of their ideological brethren.
Fine. Introduce Castro to the Chicago boys, and Castro will be a hero, right?It ain't the accident of meeting someone, it's what you do with what they tell you. Tom Daschle undoubtedly has met Jack Kemp, but what did he do with it? Nothing.
"You are exactly correct. The 4000 "Democrats" who were killed are only a drop in the bucket compared to the number who would have died under the communist system."
Maybe you could explain Allende's rise to power. Wasn't he elected? Also maybe you could dissect his communist policies so that people are clear as to what he stood for.
That sounds so much better than "tyranny."
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