← Autodidact Archive · Original Dissent · Franco
Thread ID: 3801 | Posts: 7 | Started: 2002-12-02
2002-12-02 19:37 | User Profile
Someone just mentioned Argentina in another thread. Thought I would add this for people who do not know about it.
The item is old -- from the first CPTWC website -- but the lesson is important.
The Significance of 1970s Argentina: Force, Not "Democratic Action," Can Be The Final Cure For A Sick Country
In the 1970s, violent little civil wars against Communists were going on in three "heavily-White" (i. e. heavily-Spaniard) countries in South America: Uruguay, Argentina and Chile. This area, which looks kind of like a triangle on a map, is sometimes called "the Southern Cone."
Chile's example (the physical overthrowing of the Marxist Allende's corrupt regime in 1973) is much more well known than the others, and is still a rallying point for the international Left.
Now, this may not seem interesting, but the lesson that comes from it is. That lesson, in this case at least, is that trying to use the usual, wimpy "democratic means" to save your country is futile once your country has reached a certain low point on the social hopeless-meter.
Argentina is the best example, we feel, because the leftist-caused terror towards civil society was more brutal, and so we will use it.
After much leftist/Communist-caused horror and violence (at one point in 1975, leftist bombs were exploding in Argentina every 4 hours or so; police and military officers were actually being assassinated, and they were forced to employ bodyguards), there was a bloodless (i. e., no armed fighting) coup, and the right-wing military took power, in 1976.
After the military took power, they created a program to deal with the then in-the-toilet civilian atmosphere, called "The Process," or Process of National Reorganization. This was a forceful, methodical remaking or rebuilding of all parts of Argentine society. As only one example, all leftist university professors were removed from the universities and replaced with military officers, so they could no longer indoctrinate the students with leftist ideas.
Further, any literature/books deemed "non-Western" or "non-Christian," or leftist, were banned. Trade unions were also banned. But, it did not stop there.
Leftists and Marxists were rounded up (kidnapped off the street), taken to secret locations, tortured for information, and then killed to prevent them from talking about it later. Some were dumped from military airplanes into the sea.
Just under 9,000 leftist/Marxist activists disappeared from 1976 to1983. Many others, thankfully, fled Argentina, saving the military the trouble of rounding them up.
The military actually had some authority to do some of this, because Argentina's constitution allowed for severe measures in a time of severe social/economic crisis, although it probably did not allow for the killing of various people.
This killing went on for several years, vigorously in 1976, 1977 and 1978, finally slowing to a complete stop in 1983. For a few brief, shining moments, there was no political "Left" to speak of, and Argentina was an O. K. place to be, or to raise a family.
Of course, the international leftist outcry (i. e., from the U. N., Amnesty International, the global media, etc.) was very intense, and that outcry led to the ending of military rule in Argentina (strange how Amnesty Intl., the media, and the U. N. said nothing, during that same period, about Communist-committed murder in, say, Cuba, or China, or other Marxist countries; funny how they pounced on Argentina as soon as some of their Marxist buddies began disappearing, but remained silent while Castro did similar things to various Cuban citizens who opposed Communism).
Also interesting to note is the Jewish, leftist journalist Jacobo Timerman being among those few rounded up, but not killed; he later wrote a whiny, "oh-we-poor-innocent-Jews" book about his experiences while in military custody, a book which became popular in leftist circles; you see, he claimed that the Argentine military was "Nazi-like" and "Fascist," and that they used "anti-Semitic" language while interogating him, and that they singled him out because he was Jewish.
The key here is that "The Process" (we are not necessarily condoning the killings, of course) was very successful while it lasted. Indeed, it shows that sometimes using "official" government force is the only way to truly remake a society that has become completely ruined and sickened by the Left and other suspects.
This is the lesson here, and, despite possibly going overboard in some areas, this undemocratic "process" was praised in the U. S. by some Reagan officials, such as Jeane Kirkpatrick (in 1981, Kirkpatrick rightly blasted the leftist U. N. for being "selective" in not inquiring about state-committed terror in Communist countries, but, at the same time, vigorously attacking Argentina, and Chile, as "human-rights violators"). Further, Reagan's administration was generally friendly to Argentina during this period, after Reagan's election in 1980; Carter's earlier administration was, predictably, not....
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2002-12-02 21:01 | User Profile
Originally posted by Franco@Dec 2 2002, 19:37 The key here is that "The Process" (we are not necessarily condoning the killings, of course) was very successful while it lasted. Indeed, it shows that sometimes using "official" government force is the only way to truly remake a society that has become completely ruined and sickened by the Left and other suspects.
Military rule in Argentina was a disaster. Unlike Pinochet in Chile, it made absolutely no attempt to build a solid basis for an economy or a culture. There are certainly worse examples in the communist world than Argentina, but that's no reason to take up their example.
Best, P
2002-12-02 21:37 | User Profile
If you fall off the first bike you ride, do you forswear bikes?
Pretty much everybody with a passing knowledge of South America knows of los desparicidos ['the disappeared ones'] in the Argentine crackdown against Marxists because of Jewish media: not only did the scandal get lots of face-time on 60 Minutes and the high-profile lefty print media [NY Times, Village Voice, etc] but we got propagandized with a ballyhooed tv-movie PRISONER WITHOUT A NUMBER, CELL WITHOUT A KEY which slammed home the Nazi analogies with the standard-issue unsubtle hammer.
Now ask those same people if they're aware that "at one point in 1975, leftist bombs were exploding in Argentina every 4 hours or so; police and military officers were actually being assassinated, and they were forced to employ bodyguards" and you'll get blank stares. CBS never bothered telling folks the above, so it probably didn't happen. Sell your side of the story with animated, breathless faux-outrage; murmur the other side of the story under your breath as a grudging afterthought.
All right-wing movements, excessive or not [save for Israel in matters of 'survival' and 'self-defense'], are made analogous to Naziism thanks to deliberate, concerted efforts in the media....what does such a blanket pre-emptive strike tell you about the true face of the Left? The tragedy of South America in the 1970s is that, once the sh*t hit the fan and the smoke cleared, most of the dead were thoroughly brainwashed youths betrayed by their mentors in bomb-throwing and political assassination, unlike the Jacobo Timermans of this world - who get soireed as Victims Of The New Nazis after leaving prison alive and intact and with book and movie deals in tow.
2002-12-02 22:24 | User Profile
Originally posted by il ragno@Dec 2 2002, 21:37 **If you fall off the first bike you ride, do you forswear bikes?
**
A better analogy might be: If you see some idiot jump off a roof, do you try it under the assumption that you might somehow make it work this time?
Despite your wish to contrary, the Jewish media did not create the disaster that is Argentina. Anyone with serious knowledge of South America knows that the military rule there was an utter disaster. Whether the coverage of that disaster was fair or not is irrelevant: the bottomline is that it did not work. Putting aside the barbarity of the military's rule, it failed on basic grounds as well. Argentina's economy grew worse, her people were demoralized and the culture turned sterile. This is not a "process" worth repeating here.
Best, P
2002-12-02 22:55 | User Profile
I might inject that the leftist-instigated sanctions imposed upon Argentina -- for example, I recall the government buying Soviet goods due to some of those sanctions -- may have caused various economic problems.
But we must ask "were the citizens better off before the coup?" No.
2002-12-02 23:06 | User Profile
Despite your wish to contrary, the Jewish media did not create the disaster that is Argentina. Anyone with serious knowledge of South America knows that the military rule there was an utter disaster.
No, but the media coverage helped create a perception that discouraged investment, by characterizing the country as a banana republic indistinguishable from Bolivia. And of course, to ascribe the greater evil to 'military rule', when the rising leftist chaos threatened to reduce the country to rubble, is typical misdirection. How well off would Argentina be had they turned into Nicaragua 25 years ago?
That's like me saying that, since America is economically strong, and our campus leftists rule academia unimpeded and unmolested, Noel Ignatiev= a vibrant GNP.
As for who to ascribe blame to for the rise and spread of international leftism......
2002-12-02 23:07 | User Profile
I might inject that the leftist-instigated sanctions imposed upon Argentina -- for example, I recall the government buying Soviet goods due to some of those sanctions -- may have caused various economic problems.
Please, that hardly covers the depth of Argentina's problems. There are form Soviet republics in better shape than Argentina, and they relied a bit more on "Soviet goods."
But we must ask "were the citizens better off before the coup?" No.
Well, gee, which coup do you mean? There were so many. If you mean at the end of it all, after 1983, the answer is yes, they were worse off.
Best, P