Pinochet and Difficulty

Having made thousands of innocent people disappear in his day, General Augusto Pinochet finally drops down the rabbit hole himself, thus escaping the long arm of justice. And what is the reaction from the White House?

"Augusto Pinochet's dictatorship in Chile represented one of the most difficult periods in that nation's history," said White House spokesman Tony Fratto. "Our thoughts today are with the victims of his reign and their families. We commend the people of Chile for building a society based on freedom, the rule of law and respect for human rights."

Notice the diction here. The dictatorship of Pinochet was not one of the darkest periods in Chile's history, one of the most shameful periods in Chile's history, one of the most abominable periods in Chile's history, etc. No, it was a "difficult" period. Something tells me that "difficulty" is not the word the families of the disappeared would likely choose to describe what they suffered under Pinochet. How about "terrorism"?

It would be difficult indeed to acknowledge our government's complicity in the Pinochet coup and the terror regime that followed. Difficult to explain why Nixon and Kissinger cozied up to the good General while he presided over atrocity after atrocity. Very very difficult.

See article by Amy Goodman at http://www.commondreams.org/views06/1214-33.htm