Monday May 28, 2012

JAPAN NEWS AND DISCUSSION

Obama praises Chile's transition to democracy

World Mar. 22, 2011 - 06:15AM JST ( 7 )

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yabitsMar. 22, 2011 - 08:39AM JST

Even as Obama praised Chile’s fast-growing democracy, he avoided being drawn into an excavation of its past when a Chilean reporter asked him about ongoing investigations stemming from the country’s troubled past. Protesters in the capital, Santiago, on Sunday had demanded that Obama apologize to the Chilean people for U.S. interventions before and during the 1973-1990 dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet.

Thousands of innocent Chileans died in that horrible period -- while the leadership in the US that gave the green light stood by an smiled. Costa-Gavras' great movie on the period, Missing, stands as effective as ever.

The big news here, to those whose political sympathies would have endorsed the killers as their Republican leadership did, is that President Obama did not apologize.
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Bebert61Mar. 22, 2011 - 10:45AM JST

Innocent? Sure, in the same way that Pol Pot's followers were innocent, or Mao's Red Guard were innocent, or the Bolshevicks were innocent. Pinochet helped Chile avoid a great massacre by initiating a minor massacre. The same can be said of the generals in Argentina during the so-called "Dirty War."
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yabitsMar. 22, 2011 - 12:11PM JST

Pinochet helped Chile avoid a great massacre by initiating a minor massacre.

Millions of Chileans know better than you.
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TiPetetTiPoMar. 22, 2011 - 12:33PM JST

Presidente Obama is the first American leader who can bring Allende's vision back to US.
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plasticmonkeyMar. 22, 2011 - 06:15PM JST

Pinochet helped Chile avoid a great massacre by initiating a minor massacre

What great massacre did Allende have in the works? And give me some evidence. Don't tar all socialists with the same brush.
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yabitsMar. 22, 2011 - 07:36PM JST

What great massacre did Allende have in the works? And give me some evidence.

The same one that Daniel Ortega carried out in Nicaragua after the people of that country re-elected him as their president. Oh wait, it never happened.

What Bebert61 demonstrates is that some mythical end justifies horrendous means. It's certainly what Pinochet believed, and why the vast majority of Chileans (and the world) despised him.
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Lieberman2012Mar. 24, 2011 - 01:55PM JST

Meanwhile, President Obama and "Helicopter Ben" Bernanke seem determined to take America down the Argentina path