John McCain... sitting down with dictators without pre-conditions.... In 1985, McCain traveled to Chile for a friendly meeting with Chile's military ruler, General Augusto Pinochet.... According to a declassified U.S. Embassy cable secured by The Huffington Post, McCain described the meeting with Pinochet "as friendly and at times warm, but noted that Pinochet does seem obsessed with the threat of communism." McCain, a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee at the time, made no public or private statements critical of the dictatorship, nor did he meet with members of the democratic opposition in Chile.... At the time of the meeting, in the late afternoon of December 30, the U.S. Justice Department was seeking the extradition of two close Pinochet associates for an act of terrorism in Washington DC, the 1976 assassination of former ambassador to the U.S. and former Foreign Minister Orlando Letelier. The car bombing on Sheridan Circle in the U.S. capital was widely described at the time as the most egregious act of international terrorism perpetrated on U.S. soil by a foreign power....Would this be a bad time to remind folks that when Saddam Hussein was talking Anti-Iran, back when that was the new Communism, it was cool to be his friend....
Other U.S. congressional leaders who visited Chile made public statements against the dictatorship and in support of a return to democracy, at times becoming the target of violent pro-Pinochet demonstrations.
[ cf John McCain's Palling Around with Terrorists ]
Ah yes, supporting the right types of dictators has always been cool. Just like the cool kids always love torture, it is what makes them Rock Hard Patriots....
Hoping someone else will get down in the dirt and the weeds as the boots on the ground, because, well there are all those investment opportunities that one has to stay on top of in a time of Growing Investment Opportunities as the Shock Doctrines free up the capital resources....
Are YOU doing your part to be the Shock Doctrine, or should we just turn you out as one more of the boots on the ground....
Would this be a bad time to remind folks that Milton Friedman was also in love with the Generallissimo???
Or would that too be considered unfortunate in the light of today's glorious economic news...