Sigh...

I probably should have gathered more material to do a proper Horror Quote article, but I felt compelled to do an immediate refutation of this particular piece of nonsense:

Pinochet’s regime went on to become one of the most oppressive and brutal organizations of the 20th Century.

-- "Gringo Joe", 10 Cases of American Intervention in Latin America, The List Universe

The first thing that immediately came to mind was the fact that the Administration of General Pinochet killed fewer than 3000 Marxists in the sixteen years of its existence. Whereas the minimum estimated death toll of Marxist regimes since Lenin's coup d'etat in November of 1917 is 110 million.* That runs to a bit over 3200 deaths a day on average. Do the math.

One may argue that the Pinochet administration didn't kill enough Marxists. One may also argue that killing a Marxist is not an inherently brutal act, but is an action which has the practical effect of preventing brutality.

(Of course one may also ask if it could EVER be possible to kill "enough" Marxists.)

What are your questions on this block of instruction?


* "In sum the communist probably have murdered something like 110,000,000, or near two-thirds of all those killed by all governments, quasi-governments, and guerrillas from 1900 to 1987."

-- Professor R.J. Rummel, HOW MANY DID COMMUNIST REGIMES MURDER?
_