May 9, 2005
THE LAST STALINISTS:
Abu Ghraib Isn't Guernica: But here's why the Spanish Civil War analogy is worth exploring. (Christopher Hitchens, May 9, 2005, Slate)
Ian McEwan observed recently that there were, in effect, two kinds of people: those who could have used or recognized the words "Abu Ghraib" a few years ago, and those to whom it became a new term only last year. And what a resonant name it has indeed become. Now the Colombian painter Fernando Botero has produced a sequence of lurid and haunting pictures, based on the photographs taken by American war criminals, with which he hopes to draw attention to the horrors inflicted there. But his true ambition, he says, is to do for Abu Ghraib what Picasso did for Guernica.
The analogy is entirely apt. The same sorts of folk who think Spain would have been better off under a Stalinist regime oppose the WoT now. Posted by Orrin Judd at May 9, 2005 4:56 PM
My wife, who is Colombian, is a big fan of Botero's...we even have a print of his in our son's room.
Posted by: Foos at May 9, 2005 5:12 PMThe analogy is apt in another way: for both, there's a lot of money in leftist pockets, waiting to be filched.
Posted by: pj at May 9, 2005 5:20 PMShe's also a big fan of the Colombian president who most of these people think is a fascist too.
Posted by: oj at May 9, 2005 5:30 PMGood point, OJ. In fact, I think this blog should adopt as one of its goals the necessary amendment to the Colombian constitution to permit Uribe to run for a second term. The New Republic ran an article 2 weeks ago which basically said that although Uribe has made Colombia an infinitly safer place, he's the worst threat to democracy in the country's history. If you had asked me, I would have reserved that honor for the FARC.
Posted by: Foos at May 9, 2005 6:18 PM