>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?
You forget one important difference: Pinchet was an *ally* of US imperialism, while Noriega and Hussein had conflicts with it.
>The question is how is meting out this justice.
I'd prefer as much as you that he got the justice, that Mussolini got, but a public Spanish trial which would reveal in detail the records of the Pinochet regime wouldn't be that bad, would it? Of course, we have yet to see such an outcome ...
> 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.
Indeed, but I could not imagine how a trial against Pinochet could anything but *weaken* illusions in the humanism of US imperialism, can you?
Whatever the outcome, I think Pinochet's arrest is good news. If he is released it will serve as an outstanding example of their hypocrisy behind prosecuting crimes against humanity.
Yours Jorn
-- Jorn Andersen
Internationale Socialister Copenhagen, Denmark IS-WWW: http://www2.dk-online.dk/users/is-dk/