What you call naive idealism, I call principles. Yep, they're written in stone, black and white, and I do my absolute best to uphold them. When I fail to do so, and at times I do because I'm only human, I pray to God Almighty for forgiveness. Heaven help me if I decide that moral relativism offers a better path.
By the same token you should join the far left in condemning the U.S. in every single war it has ever fought, because there's always been at least "one case" where some of our soldiers did something to civilians that we're not proud of. By your reasoning that makes the U.S. army "murderers," and renders all the good accomplished they've accomplished in every previous war moot.
Oh please. That's utter nonsense. We're all aware that the military is comprised of individuals, both good and bad. When a soldier or soldiers goes off the reservation, disobeys orders and kills an innocent, we charge those responsible and punish them appropriately. The entire U.S. Army is not to blame.
Now, if you're trying to say that Pinochet isn't personally to blame for any of the murders that are attributed to him and his regime, I'm all ears. I'm calling BS and saying that with thousands dead that there is virtually no chance that they were all killed without his direction.
We must all try to uphold them. I have no objections to that. The difference is in trying to uphold them, you are projecting a worldview that simply is not realistic. As I noted, even the United States during its best intentioned wars and efforts (e.g. WWII) had soldiers that acted in less than Christian manners. You're absolutist view would not permit us to describe the U.S. effort during WWII as a good thing (or the current U.S. fight against islamofascism for that matter, due to events like Abu Gharib). And yes, I do call that naive and self defeating.
When I fail to do so, and at times I do because I'm only human, I pray to God Almighty for forgiveness.
From what I understand, so did Pinochet himself. Only a couple of weeks ago he appeared on his balcony, accepted responsibility for the wrongs comitted on his watch, and asked for God's forgiveness. But he also reiterated the necessity of his coup to prevent a much greater evil from taking hold, and given the record of Allende's insidious marxism he was justified in that position.