Posted on 12/10/2006 9:46:26 AM PST by My Favorite Headache
Hell has a new employee...Pinochet is dead at 91.
Allowing innocents to die, especially at the hands of the sort of semi-vigilante "justice" of death squads, is never right, thank God.
Hitler was only against Communist homosexuals. Rumor has it Der Fuhrer was a homosexual, as was Goering.
And as far as "los desaparecidos" goes, I always associated that with the dictatorship in ARGENTINA, not Chile. I wonder why the term has been revived as the "intellectual property" of the Pinochet regime, with no mention of Argentina, or other places.Somehow, at least as far as this thread goes, the term is now semi-officially emblazoned on the chest of the dead Pinochet (obviously, he can't dispute or disown it now, being dead)This strikes me as the same sort of strategem employed in the ongoing and perpetual demonization of Joe McCarthy and "McCarthyism" as being responsible for EVERYTHING in the roughly decade long postwar period of "The Red Scare" , including and maybe PRIMARILY going after icons like Lucille Ball, and some other innocuous showbiz personalities---of course McC had NOTHING to do with "Red Channels" or any effort like that---he had more serious fish to fry.
Great. Is 3,000 dead better or worse than 3,000,000 dead?
Didn't the late Ambassador Kirkpatrick defend Pinochet? Wasn't she one of the few to recognize his accomplishments in Chile? If so, it is somewhat ironic that the two died in the same week.
Is that Mel Brooks and Steve Martin?
So tell me, what exactly would you have done in Pinochet's place? Allende's marxists were bombing, assaulting and kidnapping to destroy capitalism. The economy was in shatters... hyperinflation and social unrest. Allende was THAT close to taking steps to consolidate power.
And then a lone voice speaks in the midst of all this terror and chaos... "Atrocity is atrocity. Wrongness is wrongness. Don't advocate moral relativism."
You do know this was not a time for reflection and thoughts. Do you seriously believe the plans Allende had for Chile and South America was anything but brutal repression and mass murders to achieve the ideal communist state?
And are you aware that intellectuals who talk like you... were usually the very first people to get executed by the communists?
It's a whole lot worse than 0 dead innocents. The key word is innocents.
I would have congratulated Pinochet for his excellent job, called for a gov't of national unity AGAINST the subversive communists, and did what the Christian Democratic Party of Chile did and restored the civilian government and have General Pinochet lead the effort to root out the communists.
Calling Saddam an "ally" is more than a little bit of a stretch. We gave him a little help in his war against the Iraqi mullahs, who had just given us a slap in the face.
"Ally" implies much more.
Sorry, I meant not what they did but what they called for. They advocated the return of the civilian gov't, but Pinochet wouldn't let them.
Somebody is going nuts with the keywords.
Even though Pinochet kept communism out of Chile, I doubt that he will escape eternal retribution when you consider the thousands of people killed by his regime. From his regime's record, Pinochet doesn't look like a candidate for heavenly bliss.
And let's not forget the MSM reports just a day or two ago suggesting quite explicitly, thank you, that Pinochet was faking illness to avoid prosecution by the freedom and social justice loving proletarians of the world!
1 dead innocent is better than 3,000 dead innocents. 3000 dead innocents is better than 3,000,000 dead innocents.
How many innocents did Pinochet kill?
The key word is innocents.
Pinochet was not a saint.
"Pinochet was not a saint."
That, we can agree. My main point only goes a bit further: "Pinochet was not a hero."
He did some evil things, and while he may be congratulated as the man who saved Chile from Allende and communism, you can't congratulate him for all the things he did afterwards.
Excellent. We're finally getting somewhere.
you can't congratulate him for all the things he did afterwards.
When you compare him to other strongmen, I think you can. You keep talking about the innocent college girls he killed, just because they went to a Communist Party meeting. How many of those were there? Who told you? Jimmy Carter?
How many people did Ortega kill in 11 years? How about Castro in the last 47 years?
Are you one of those guys who wouldn't have killed Hitler in 1932? Because one death is just as bad as 60,000,000?
Pinochet, a real leader and patriot, leftists were dealt with and all prospered, the GOP could take a lesson, he was Lincolnesque on a much smaller scale.
SANTIAGO, Chile (AP) -- Gen. Augusto Pinochet took full responsibility for the first time Saturday for the actions of his 1973-90 dictatorship, which carried out thousands of political killings and is blamed for widespread torture and illegal imprisonment.
At a celebration of his 91st birthday, Pinochet also defended the bloody military coup that toppled freely elected Marxist President Salvador Allende, in a statement read aloud by his wife as he sat by her side.
"Today, near the end of my days, I want to say that I harbor no rancor against anybody, that I love my fatherland above all and that I take political responsibility for everything that was done which had no other goal than making Chile greater and avoiding its disintegration," he said.
"I assume full political responsibility for what happened."
Pinochet, surrounded by family, bodyguards and retired generals outside his home, raised his hand to acknowledge about 200 supporters gathered outside who sang him "Happy Birthday" and chanted "Long live Chile! Long live Pinochet!" A mariachi band played one of his favorite songs. After about a half-hour, he slowly stood and walked inside supported by a cane and the arm of a bodyguard.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.