Comments on: Malcolm Caldwell: Pol Pot’s Leading Academic Defender in the West

By: Shrek

Shrek — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 05:39:19 +0000

*Sigh*, most of the comments here as knee jerk, blindly in support of a cause and belief systems as poor old naive Caldwell, well intentioned prof Chomsky and sneaky opportunist Galloway — but you lot just go at it from a right wing rhetoric/neo con angle.

I’ve got news for you — you are all as bad and as blind and apologetic and appeasing as the men you criticise — just you breathe your hot air for a different set of crooks and corrupt fiddlers.

By: sackcloth and ashes

sackcloth and ashes — Sat, 07 Mar 2009 11:32:43 +0000

‘(and check the copies …)’

By: sackcloth and ashes

sackcloth and ashes — Sat, 07 Mar 2009 11:31:28 +0000

‘I notice that you don’t dispute the fact that fighting between the KR and Vietnam began in 1975, when you claim they were still allies until 1978.’

Actually, I was wrong in saying 1978 – the first border clashes were in late 1977. So I’m out by a couple of months. But compared to you that’s spot on accuracy. The facts remain (and if you read the sources I linked you too) as follows: Hanoi was the KR’s midwife, and supported Pol Pot’s murderous regime for over two years after it seized power from Lon Nol. I’m sorry you find that so upsetting.

As for Nic Dunlop, credit for tracking down Duch (I wonder if that’s pronounced ‘douche’, BTW – appropriate if true). But if you honestly think that the clincher for SAS training of the KR is an interview with an ex-KR fighter who says he was trained by white men who ’said they were British’, I don’t know what to say. But then you have demonstrated here that your standards for proof aren’t very high.

As for Pilger’s lost libel case (anc check the copies of the ‘Times’ stories that Michael Ezra links to) there is absolutely nothing ‘complcated (sic)’ at all. He couldn’t contest the suit, and had to settle out of court. It’s also very ironic that you’ve accused Oliver Kamm of quote-mining, because that’s effectively all you’ve done in these posts.

Oh, and its ‘James Robertson Justice’. And seeing that in his pre-Sir Lancelot Spratt incarnation he fought with the Republicans in Spain, I am personally honoured that you see fit to compare people like me with him.

By: vildechaye

vildechaye — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 16:03:51 +0000

i don’t agree that Pilger has compassion for ordinary people. I believe he has “compassion” for “ordinary people” he considers suffering from Western Imperialism and its variants. I don’t believe he has a moment’s suffering for people suffering under the yoke of regimes not affiliated with the West, including totalitarian regimes like Saddam’s, or the old Soviet bloc or China (then and now). I think he can be written off as just another hard leftie poseur who made his bed anti-american bed in the 1970s and refuses to alter his worldview. I should mention i also find him utterly unreadable. Perhaps even worse, he’s an insufferable pompous ass. I will never forget hearing him interviewed on the radio and talking about how unlike most people, including journalists, he can “decode” what the media is saying to get at the real truth (always anti-Western of course) of the matter. So unlike us peons working in the media (i am a newspaper editor), mr pilger knows what is REALLY going on. Sure John. I suppose he gets that knowledge from all that free association with Fisk, Monbiot, Herman, Ali and Chomsky, whereas the rest of us….. oh well.

In short, just an asshole.

By: Mike S

Mike S — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 14:09:49 +0000

Mikey
The article you quote is a poor one but in terms of Pliger being an apologist for Ba’athism your use of ellipses deliberately excludes Pilger’s references to the “grim, totalitarian” nature of Iraq. Also his points about the social transformation brought about by Saddam in the Seventies are not used to praise him, but to draw attention to the humanitarian suffering of the Iraqi people under sanctions. Frankly, one can pick apart his arguments without resorting that sort of disingenuous name-calling.

Johan W. I don’t agree with your politics, but you are obviously a very smart and erudite guy, and it has been a privilege to exchange viewpoints with you. I do however find this sentence astonishing.
“Pol Pots victims exist for Pilger only in so far as they can be used to stoke his visceral hatreds.” Whatever one thinks of Pilger (and I certainly think he has began to lose the plot as he gets older), his work is full of compassion for the plight of ordinary people, and personal distaste for his politics shouldn’t distort that fact.

By: Johan W

Johan W — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 02:33:01 +0000

Mikey:
Hardly surprising.

By: Mikey

Mikey — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 01:17:23 +0000

@Johan W Pilger was an apologist for the raqi Baathist regime:

the Iraqi resistance to the high-tech Anglo-American machine was heroic.... Saddam Hussein was careful to use the oil wealth to create a modern secular society and a large and prosperous middle class. Iraq was the only Arab country with a 90 per cent clean water supply and with free education....

By: Johan W

Johan W — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 01:02:17 +0000

Well obviously some people are suggesting that Pilger supported the KR until he attacked them – my bad. I am not suggesting he did and can find no evidence of it. What is indisputable is that he was vociferous supporter of North Vietnam, that he was very much a Johnny come lately to the issue of the KR’s crimes despite indo china being his beat so to speak. And when he did address the subject he has willfully distorted it’s history on a large scale. I can’t imagine how you square the idea of Pilger serving the cause of justice by wreathing it in the smoke of lies. Pol Pots victims exist for Pilger only in so far as they can be used to stoke his visceral hatreds.

By: Nearly Oxfordian

Nearly Oxfordian — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 00:28:32 +0000

And – as usual – you are wrong.

By: Mike S

Mike S — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 23:24:09 +0000

Sometimes I try to imagine what various HP commenters’ voices sound like on the basis of what they write. I have yours down as James Robinson Justice on helium.