[lbo-talk] Law Student With a History of Taking Left Turns

[Brad DeLong]

>On Fri, 18 Jul 2003 15:39:05 -0400, Dennis Perrin <dperrin at comcast.net> wrote:
>
>>>  >I mean who cares if Chomsky fucks chickens, I
>>>>don't think that changes the fact that the US Air Force probably killed
>>as
>>>  >many Cambodians as the Khmer Rouge did...
>>>
>>>You really do know nothing at all about anything.
>>>
>>>Brad DeLong
>>
>>What was the CIA estimate for Cambodian dead from US bombing during
>>1970-75 -- something like 600,000? The Yale Center has settled on 1.7
>>million dead under the KR, but I recall the CIA's numbers being between
>>600,000 to a million. 'Course, you factor in Vietnamese and Laotian dead
>>from the US assault, and the total numbers go way beyond Pol Pot's. And if
>>he was a genocidal monster (which he was), what does that make us?
>
>Whatever the comparative totals are, one must keep in mind that it 
>was the U.S. bombing of Cambodia that plunged that country into 
>ruin, which enabled the previously-marginal Khmer Rouge to take 
>power. One could easily argue that the _whole_ of the Khmer Rouge's 
>record can be blamed, at least in part, on the United States.

I would have thought that no U.S. support for Lon Nol would have 
meant that the Khmer Rouge would have taken over more quickly, no? 
Once Sihanouk threw his support to the Khmer Rouge, avoiding their 
genocide would have required keeping Lon Nol in power...

Brad DeLong