good news?

[James Heartfield]

In message <1.5.4.32.19981018162556.00a71088 at albatros.cnb.net>, Thomas
Kruse <tkruse at albatros.cnb.net> writes
>Regarding Pinochet's arrest:From here, the vicissitudes of British politics are surely relevant (on such
>stuff turns what happens next).  But they are not the most important
>aspects.  Here the feeling is: THE FUCKER is sweating; impunity is being
>questioned; punto(s) final(es) are being reconsidered; memories are being
>dusted off.  And there is joy, as on the day when Anastasio Somoza to a
>direct hit from a rocket propelled grenade launcher.
>
>Just a minute ago Pinochet took his seat in Senate for Life, his immunity,
>and seemed to ride off into the sunset.  Now, just a moment later, the end
>of the movie might have another outcome.  The simple admission/recognition
>of this *possibilty* -- a different end, a whiff of justice -- is dramatic.
>I can't emphasize this enough!

Look, I can appreciate that the desire to see this old pig get his is
paramount. But then wouldn't that be true in the case of Saddam Hussein
or Generla Noriega, both of whose regimes are or were barbaric in their
treatment of their own people? The question is how is meting out this
justice. Is it a progressive step that Noriega was imprisoned by the US?
Would it be if Saddam were seized or assassinated by NATO forces?
Certainly most Iraqi oppositionists would applaud such a move, and the
Panamanian intelligentsia did also. But such actions only reinforce the
power of Western imperialism, the very force that put Pinochet into
power.
-- 
James Heartfield