Matthew Blackwell, Quillette: Devastation and Denial: Cambodia and the Academic Left
Looking out across the yellow-washed angular buildings that clutter the inner city of Phnom Penh in 2016, hindsight fills me with anxiety. Imagining myself here in 1975, I recall the jubilant and cheering crowds in the spring of that year who weren’t privy to that hindsight as they welcomed Khmer Rouge communists into Cambodia’s capital city after months of siege.
On the morning of 17 April, word had arrived that the Khmer Rouge had captured the government’s last beleaguered military stronghold on the outskirts of the city. Prime Minister Long Boret could hardly believe the news. He demanded to be driven to the riverside to see it with his own eyes. By the time he arrived, order had already collapsed in the streets and men wearing the black shirts of the Khmer Rouge surrounded his small entourage and demanded his guards put down their guns. Managing to slip away in the chaos, Boret reported back to his cabinet at the Defence Ministry that the enemy was already in the streets. The rush then began to evacuate senior government members from the country on any government helicopters still available amidst the anarchy. Had he taken action, Boret might have escaped with his wife and children on a helicopter reserved for him, but he delayed, trying to find a helicopter with enough space for his extended family.
Read more ....
WNU Editor: I always enjoy posting these articles to remind myself on how many in the West were complicit in either supporting the rise of the Khmer Rouge, or to excuse it and/or rationalize it when rumors of a genocide were taking place. You can read more on this from Wikipedia .... Cambodian genocide denial (Wikipedia). Matthew Blackwell is particularly brutal on Noam Chomsky. And while it is true that Mr. Chomsky does have his supporters .... The boring truth about Chomsky: he does not support Pol Pot (Michael Brull, ABC News Online), I cannot help but feel that on this issue he reminds me of the former New York Times reporter Walter Duranty and his reporting of the Stalin regime in the early 1930s .... trying to rationalize what cannot be rationalize.
7 comments:
When it comes to mass murder perpetrated by the left wing governments of the XX century leftists tend to have two replies.Either the atrocities have been exagerrated by a significant factor or more simply x regime was not communist in reality.I've seen the not a true communist defence used over and over again 'Stalin was not a communist,Pol Pot was not,Mao was not,Castro was not etc.'Apparently people aged below 35 know more about communism than Stalin who lived just a few decades after the basic principles of the ideology were settled.
WNU,
Sorry to break up the "evil left" tub thumping.
Here's a leftist who called them all out.
http://johnpilger.com/videos/year-zero-the-silent-death-of-cambodia
It appears evil left academics weren't the only ones willfully ignoring what was going on in Cambodia during and before Pol Pot - let alone facilitating it.
Incidentally,
Is the Congo communist? Or do we get the rightist version of the left's "but, but that isn't TRUE communism".
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_Leopold%27s_Ghost
Every year is Year Zero is Congo capitalism land.
http://files.constantcontact.com/5c58b1e0701/288291a5-d352-4628-8bd3-dc7dc420ceb3.pdf
But while we're on the subject of capitalism and corruption, Trump should wear a bib and knee pads the next time he visits with Putin.
1. You dip into the past merely to dump on the Left, a favorite action of late at this site and hardly what an aggregation is all about but rather an opinion piece.
2. Chomsky seems pretty much the only evidence for the huge claim about The Academic Left...I am in the academic left and fully hated and opposed Pot Pol...Chomsky is not a hero for many of us. Why? He never says a decent word about America and faults his nation for all the ills in the world. But he is NOT the only voice left of center
3. and yes: communism brought about mass killings in China and in Russia. But so too did American slaugher of Indians and the non stop violence of Catholics against Protestants, and the hounding of the Jews throughout the West...and then there is the Muslim faith and its barbarism as Sunnis fight Shia
Hitler and nazism were the Right and they were as bad as any leftist regimes.
If then you want to dump on the Left; be an equal opportunity blogger and show us the sins of the right, beginning right now with Iran and its ally Russia, Trump loving Russia that is
As I mention it in the masthead. This site aggregates the news, but I will throw in my opinion once in a while. And being one who lived a good part of his life under a leftist regime .... yes .... I am an expert on leftist regimes.
I went to Cambodia this year and saw the killing fields up close and personal. There is no denying that a million plus people died there. Anyone denying that is an idiot. MOst of the people killed were killed with farm tools. Khymer Rouge didn't have enough money for bullets.
"Trump should wear a bib and knee pads the next time he visits Putin."
"...beginning right now with Iran and its ally Russia, Trump loving Russia that is."
Now if this going to be the attitude of the critics to a careful and meticulous diplomatic effort designed at possibly ending Cold War 2 or at the very least lessening tensions, we really do have a huge problem, especially if this extends to our citizens as a whole. If attempting to engage with a very powerful world leader on a constructive level means "wearing knee pads and a bib" or "loving Russia" then we have gone stark raving mad. At least this applies to Trump's critics in this regard, much of the pundit class, and much of the political class. If this is going to extend to the nation as a whole, then we are in even deeper trouble than I thought.
The Iranian situation is a problem. Better relations with Russia is going to be paramount to resolving the problem with Iran. Once Iran understands Russia is not going to be backing their consistently unreasonable positions we can expect more reasonable behavior from them and herein lies part of the key to solving the problem. There does appear to have been less harassment of US vessels in the Persian Gulf by Iran of late. Also, the rhetoric from Iran appears to have changed from that of something like a prowling wolf to that of a scared bully. Keep in mind that scared bullies can be very dangerous!! Then there is the canceling of the crap sandwich so called JCPOA otherwise known as the Iran deal. It's very likely all of this was coordinated with Russia and perhaps China as well. As stated, better relations with Russia will likely be crucial to resolving the Iran crisis.
This diplomatic opportunity is a historic one that we may never get again. It is vitally important that we avail ourselves of it. Hysterical over the top criticisms of those trying to make this happen are worse than counter productive. Such actions may lead the other side to disengage entirely.
WNU,
Those pictures and others like them have a certain "coldness" about them.
JH
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