Our Model Dictator

John Pilger has written a superb obituary on General Suharto, dictator of Indonesia for thirty years ago. As a whole, Pilger's piece reminds us that, for sheer callousness, the neo-cons have nothing on the political class during the Cold War. I quote below the bizarre and chilling conclusion to the piece:

Shortly before the death of Alan Clark, who under Thatcher was the minister responsible for supplying Suharto with most of his weapons, I interviewed him, and asked: "Did it bother you personally that you were causing such mayhem and human suffering?"

"No, not in the slightest," he replied. "It never entered my head."

"I ask the question because I read you are a vegetarian and are seriously concerned with the way animals are killed."

"Yeah?"

"Doesn't that concern extend to humans?"

"Curiously not."