Who Loves Dictators?

It all depends on the dictator, but they all have their supporters. What's inexplicable is how Mark Steyn has tried to suggest that it's only liberals that get behind dictators. Really? Why then did Jonah Goldberg write such a loving eulogy for Augusto Pinochet? Why did Reagan send his buddy Don Rumsfeld to kick it with Saddam in the 1980s? Those are two examples off the top of my head, the fact is, I don't see dictator support as a liberal quirk.

Losing Ourselves in Afghanistan

It appears now that some of the detainees that we turned over to the Afghans have disappeared. We are participating in disappearances? Why? I know what the stock answers will be, all the business about this being a "new kind of enemy" or a "clash of civilizations" or the "greatest threat we face."

Bullshit.

We somehow managed to fight World War II without participating in disappearances. What are we doing now? Maybe if you're a neocon crackpot like Jonah Goldberg and you view Pinochet as a hero, this is no big deal, but I've always wanted to believe that Canada was trying to hold itself to a higher standard. Remember as far as we know, none of the disappeared have been convicted of anything, let alone charged. We have no way of knowing whether they were just in the wrong place at the wrong time.

I'm not sure how much of this kind of "help" the Afghan people are prepared to tolerate.