Reply #141: Stalin and Khmer Rouge were both facist states

[ConservativeDemocrat]

Fascism is the combination of state and economic power in the hands of a dictator and/or oligarchs. From the communist left this is achieved when the state expropriates all businesses. From the right, this is achieved when business monopolists gain exclusive power over the state. In both cases the justification tyrants use is nearly always "national security".

The Soviet Union, the Khmer Rouge, Fascist Italy, the Nazis, were all fascist states. Aside from some meaningless ideology that no one really believed, they behaved exactly the same.

Here's some suggested reading for you "foo_bar": Animal Farm.

The Spanish Inquisition was one of literally hundreds of merciless royal pogoms that terrorized peasants in the medieval world. The French Revolution - which killed about 40,000 people not 1 million - was an almost equally merceless reaction. Neither technically qualifies as a "war crime" because the concept of a war crime is extremely modern. It was just war.

As far as the original quote goes, I do see the occasional necessity of nipping fascist dictatorships in the bud through use of "war" (not "war crimes" as the original poster stated). The trick though, is to avoid becoming a fascist dictatorship yourself when doing this. While the U.S. certainly isn't one, I don't like the direction we're headed in.

- C.D.