Although there are several interesting posts on AU that I have yet to properly comment on, I state it is my intention to do so now that my exams are over. I also don’t mean to break momentum on respectable topics, but wanted to share some excerpts of an interesting essay in The Telegraph about Margaret Thatcher and Augusto Pinochet:
No one except Margaret Thatcher would have risked sending the British fleet 8,000 miles into the South Atlantic to recapture the Falklands in 1982. And no one else would have risked her reputation to defend that of Augusto Pinochet, when he was arrested in Britain, 16 years later. She never made any secret of the fact that the two were connected. She felt that Britain had a debt of honour which she, at least, would repay, whatever the cost.
The piece goes on, detailing the nature of their relationship through the years (and lack thereof, at times), but also reminds of Pinochet’s actions during the Falkland Islands War. The author, an advisor to Thatcher while she lived in Number 10, goes on to mention some interesting statistics (Austrian disclaimer: not that they mean anything):
But the loss of life, most of which occurred in the first months when a civil war raged, was less than in other similar situations – not least in Cuba, where Castro executed 15,000 opponents by firing squad. And unlike Castro, Pinochet left behind a stable democracy.
Moreover, other statistics of Pinochet’s record are worth mentioning. Inflation down from 600 per cent to six per cent. Infant mortality rates down from 66 per thousand to 13 per thousand. Urban access to drinking water up from 67 per cent to 98 per cent. Life expectations up from 64 to 73. Living standards more than doubled.
I am certainly of the belief that most of the indignant, righteous revision of history as concerns the dictator is only so much liberal hullabaloo, though it would not be fair to those who unfairly lost loved ones or friends, or to the innocent themselves who perished to say that all of the besmirching of his regime is unfounded. Indeed, as a matter of alternative history, I do not know for sure that Allende and his Socialist-Communist cohorts would have made Chile worse off, or worse than it ended up under Pinochet, although I strongly believe this– and most others do too.
Nevertheless, as Monocrat said, few tyrants have been better or less bloody.
I had thought, Admiral, to leave the dead in peace now that a full week has passed since Pinochet’s death. I might reconsider having seen this post. Anyway, I’m impressed that Lady Thatcher has been so consistent in her support. Wasn’t she a practicioner of that heartless art, realpolitk?