sbmoor:
Now, that you have relented and admitted that the medical and literacy “advancements” of the Sandinistas and Castro were not well so advanced and now that you recognize that Cuba killed more than anyone else in Latin America and the Sandinistas killed more than the Somoza regime (including during the insurgency against Somoza and in the fight against the Contras. Hey, if you are going to add them all up, you have to add them ALL up), perhaps with a bit more persuasion you might be able to realize that it is not fair to ask the US to play with perfection while everyone else gets to deal with whomever they want.
For example, you claimed that Duvalier was OUR MAN but I showed that when we tried to cut off aid to force him to behave, the Europeans and Canadians kept on funding him. So is he still OUR MAN and are his atrocities on our heads? Or are they on those that provided that financial support?
Second, prove that we had any control over Pinochet. BUT he only killed 3,000. The Sandinistas executed 20,000 minimum and forced 20,000 to 50,000 Mosquito Coast Indians to starve and then if you add in their insurgency against Somoza (another 50,000) plus their fight against the Contras you get another say 25,000 to 30,000 then is it not better than under those conditions we supported the Honduran government (which was not the worst) and the anti-communists in their fight (50,000 dead)? I mean who gets blamed for the 50,000 dead in El Salvador? The government for fighting the communist insurgency? the insurgents? Or both equally? Where does the US come into play here except by funding the govt and selling them weapons? And if that is such a huge crime, might I give you some revealing statistics about what Germany, France, Russia, Cuba, and others have sold?
Next, since you admit that communism is, was and always will be a failure, then by that very admission, must we not then assume that it was right to fight it in Central America?
Finally, we are not saying that support of dictators is good, but do we always have a choice when worse ones are on the horizon? Better to deal with Stalin to fight Hitler or better to keep our lily white credentials? Better to work with Chiang KaiShek to defeat the Japanese or fight alone? Better to prevent communism by working with Level c dictators to prevent Level B or A dictators from emerging or not?
AND remember that it is Bush who said we will no longer work with dictators. We are going to promote democracy at all costs. Therefore, are you now signing up as a Bush supporter? Just curious.