The corrupt autocracies that gave us the previous 50 years of “stability” were just slow-motion disasters. Read the U.N.’s 2002 Arab Human Development Report about what deficits of freedom, women’s empowerment and knowledge did to Arab peoples over the last 50 years.
Where he is wrong is his implicit assumption that their Islamist replacements will be an improvement. Things can always get worse.
One of the leftists' favorite targets for outrage is the US support during the Cold War for right-wing dictators like Pinochet. Huge amounts have been written about this evil government, leading me to assume it had compiled some massive number of murders.
Last night ran across the report of the official Chilean government commission, one not at all friendly to Pinochet. They put the total murdered by his government at less than 3,000 in 17 years.
That's a rounding error for the murder rate of multiple Communist regimes, which Pinochet saved his country from.
Pinochet's crime wasn't murdering 3,000 Chileans.
Pinochet's crime was saving Chile from Allende and a Communist dictatorship.
The left will never forgive him for that.