Posted on 05/06/2002 9:26:44 AM PDT by knighthawk
Pim Fortuyn, Dutch right-wing politician, has been shot by an unknown gunman. Between three and 6 six were fired. Gunman still at large. Fortuyn was shot when leaving the Radia 3 studio.
He was heavily wounded and was transported to hospital.
I do too ! But remember Pres. Bush said early-on this is a "secret" war and there are things we will not be told ! Later Cro-Magnon Rumsfeld created a department of mis-information which was quickly abandoned ! But that doesn't mean the mis-information is not still there ! And the main stream US news media would co-operate if it involves the designated enemy !
I am completely at a loss to describe how outraged I am about this. I hope--I pray--that the far right--the LUNATIC RIGHT sweeps to power in the Netherlands, storms the tribunal prison at the Hague, releases Milosevic, and provides him with arms and money to return to Serbia like Bonaparte returning from Elba! I am beginning to understand what it feels like to become a Jacobin!
I can only think of a conversation I once had in the Caribbean with an elderly Dutch couple. They were mystified, absolutely mystified, at what was happening to their country. They no longer recognized the country they grew up in. They felt they had no voice, no power whatsoever. They were honestly afraid to walk the streets of their home town of Rotterdam after sundown. The husband and I spoke of the proud history of the Netherlands, of the financial support they gave us Americans when we lacked the capital to fight the British. I saw in that man's face that he truly believed it was all vanishing--pure hopelessness. I tried to reassure him by saying that the pendulum would swing back again someday, that surely other Dutch people must feel as he did. How foolish of me to think that such things matter.
Perhaps they are waiting for the good doctors at the hospital to "do the right thing"....
the infowarrior
This is a multiple shock: the Dutch have not had a political asasination in over 400 years. And, with Fortuyn we could at least hope for a turnaround.
I am very sorry to hear this terrible news, KnightHawk.
This reminds me of the constant nattering of the "chattering classes" on NPR following Bush's acession to the White House. They were forever going on about how "the right simply must moderate their tone," but I never heard anything about how the left must moderate theirs...
the infowarrior
TEXAS!!!!
Sad, but oh so true!
The war between Hitler and Stalin was a war between left and right, when both sides needed the same territories for their systems' expansion. The disagreement today in Europe is also between the left and right. Those on the right would be liberal socialists if they were in the US, but weirdly, they're supposed to be the allies of American conservatives somehow. While Pim was being called "rightwinger" by his opponents, he was denying being any such thing. He was a Marxist, and that doesn't make him a conservative in my book.
Apparently, commies call each other "rightist" as a supreme insult, usually just before they start shooting.
Thank you for the reply. I too see all these people as just being variations on different strains of leftists. But if leftists can be on the far right, where does that put us on the political spectrum?
I'd call myself right wing if that would make me the opposite of left, but if a socialist can be "far right," that's not what I am unless it has a far different meaning.
Actually, to me, while "leftist" has a specific meaning, i.e., following the tenets of socialism, "right wing," does not have a specific meaning, since almost any philosophy you can think of gets attached to it.
I personally (like most of us here, I think) believe in the concepts of individual freedom and personal liberty, in the English tradition, as did our founding fathers. Sometimes I'd tend to think those beliefs put me on the right, except that most of what people call "far right" is in reality far left.
I don't throw the 'c' word around that easily, but indeed the assassination could have the various markings of a 'conspiracy'. I.e., more than one person was involved and that it went up the ladder to some who had nothing to gain by a large anti-immigrant, pro-nationalist turnout in the Dutch elections next week.
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