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Comment by 3pt14159 | Hacker News Reader

Chile is an interesting example because it is one of very few areas where US action saved a large number of people from death. In case it matters, I'm against interventionism and I'm Canadian, but I've visited both Cuba and Chile and even the nicest parts of Cuba are worse than the sketchy port city of Chile.

If I were Chilean I wouldn't be outraged. And many of the Chileans that I talked to were not. I think there are better examples of misused American power. Like encouraging war between Iran and Iraq, arming Mexican drug cartels, invading Canada under the auspices of Manifest Destiny, Japanese internment camps, slaughter of First Nations. Intervention in Chile was wrong, but it can also be used by neocons as a banner for effective Real Politik thinking and outcomes.

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> If I were Chilean I wouldn't be outraged.

I did some light reading on this topic. How exactly were a large number of people saved from death? Did you misspeak? Because from what I've read, the overthrow of Chile's elected government actually resulted in a large number of people dying/being tortured/'disappearing'. I'm guessing the Chileans who you spoke to weren't from that group.

Thousands died, but if you compare the numbers against the numbers that died under communism in Cuba, Russia, China, East Germany and various countries in Africa it can be used as a convincing example of ends-justify-the-means foreign interventionism.

That's quite a leap you're making, from Allende to Gulags and famine.

You should stick to subjects you actually know something about.

Oooooh the magical attack de hominen.

No: I'm not saying you're wrong because you're a moron, I'm saying you're wrong and you're a moron.

It's not an ad hominem, it's an insult.

"In late August 1973, 100,000 Chilean women congregated at Plaza de la Constitución to vent their rage against the rising cost and increasing shortages of food, but they were dispersed with tear gas.[18]"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1973_Chilean_coup_d%C3%A9tat

People on all sides of the political spectrum were distraught. It wasn't as clear cut as "left versus right" or "poor versus rich".

What does that particular event have to do with American intervention? How did American intervention save anyone from death-by-tear-gas?

  Intervention in Chile was wrong,
  but it can also be used by neocons

Why neocons specifically?

Because as a group neocons are the ones that are most ideologically behind global interventionism.

Not sure why you were modded down. As with most of history's great plots and conspiracies, the people involved cheerfully published exactly what they planned to do ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_for_the_New_American_Ce... ), and everyone acted surprised and dismayed when it happened.

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