Lies and Cambodia, Part II posted by Richard Seymour

Blogger Beezlebozo attempts a defense of his
lies over Cambodia . I don't suppose those of you who read Bozo's response to my little jibe will have missed that a) he failed to respond to the bulk of the arguments b) he distorts what arguments he does choose to deal with, and c) he falls back on the standard line of trying to reassure other readers that I am not only intellectually backward but also morally repugnant. I must be, of course.

Anyway, let's deal with the easiest ones first:

Bozo Idiocy Number One -

"Lenin has also repeatedly relied on the claims of serial fabricator John Pilger for his information about putative US support for the Khmer Rouge. For those not aware, Pilger, claimed in one of his documentary" [sic] films (Cambodia: The Betrayal, 1990) that British special forces who were training the anti-communist resistance to the continuing Vietnamese occupation of their country were in fact training the Khmer Rouge. When two SAS officers sued both him and the station that aired the film for libel, Pilger was forced to pay substantial damages in an out of court settlement, and to publish this humiliating statement in the UK press:

"The defendants now accept that neither plaintiff has ever trained Khmer Rouge or any other guerrillas and particularly not in mine-laying or any other military techniques which would be directed against civilians. Neither plaintiff would ever contemplate any such thing and would refuse to do it if ordered." (See http://www.stuff.themutual.net/cambo.htm)."

You will have noticed that Beezlebozo cannot have read my post or followed this particular case with any prolonged interest. Pilger and his colleague did not make claims of that particular kind against those two specific SAS men. That was neither stated nor implied in the original documentary. The trial collapsed on the defense side due to the British government blocking documentary evidence now available to the public including a signed affidavit stating that British soldiers had indeed trained the Khmer Rouge.

Bozo Idiocy Number Two -

"For example, he claims a contemporary CIA demographic analysis "put[s] the figure" for US bombing deaths in Cambodia "unofficially at 600,000 to 700,000." I have a suspicion- call it a hunch- that lenin has never even read the report, but rather is simply uncritically reciting what he's read in other agitprop sources like those of Michael Vickery."

Interestingly, Bozo fails to address himself to several seperate reports which I cited:

"In fact, the Finnish Inquiry Commission estimated that 600,000 people had died as a result of the bombing. Father Ponchaud put the figure at 800,000, although Chomsky and Herman pointed out that there was reason to believe Ponchaud may have exaggerated that toll, while the CIA's demographic study (cited above)tells us that "US government sources put the figure unofficially at 600,000 to 700,000".

Michael Vickery, using CIA estimates to arrive at a lower figure, suggests it might be closer to 500,000. (Michael Vickery, "Cambodia 1975-1982", 1984).

In addition to this, 2 million refugees were created (according to the Finnish Inquiry Commission)..."

The point of this argument, as he knows perfectly well, is to refute his stupid and ignorant claim that "[t]he commonly quoted 500,000+ figures for the war had actually been released by Pol Pot himself, and are without any validity."

They are not "released by Pol Pot himself". Bozo's claim is a straightforward falsification.

Second, Bozo plays an interesting sleight of hand in referring to "war-related deaths" as being caused by all sides of the civil war, and not just as a result of the US bombing. Had the US not backed Lon Nol's vicious regime, and accompanied it with a heavy sprinkling of bombing, there would not have been half the fighting that ensued. The Khmer Rouge, a previously marginal political force, would not have witnessed the remarkable acceleration in its membership growth rates that it did. Regardless, his claim that any figures above the ones he cites are the product of Pol Pot's imagination is refuted.


Bozo Idiocy Number Three - Lenin's "ignorant praise for [Hildebrand and Porter's "well-sourced, well-documented arguments" reveals that when it comes to Cambodia, lenin simply *does* *not* *know* *what* *he's* *talking* *about*."

I note that Bozo doesn't bother to include the relevant quote. I cite them as an "apparently" well-documented source. I cite them for one figure, that 100,000 people died from starvation per year during the final years of the war in Cambodia. It is a credible figure - US AID reported in the final year of the war that famine was afoot with 75% of the country's draft animals destroyed, (largely by the US bombing). This would result in "slave labour" and "rationing". Sources close to the US predicted a million deaths from starvation as the war was ending, while Dr Penelope Key lamented that the next generation of children would be afflicted by "malnutrition". Inasmuch as the Hildebrand and Porter book is considered well-sourced, that is perhaps because it cites (among its apologetics for the Khmer Rouge) numerous reports from various sources, charities, international organisations, etc. Those sources are credible. But I don't much mind if the figure is dispensed with for the sake of this argument. It will still not erase the fact that the figures for the numbers of deaths caused by the US bombing are not the product of Pol Pot.


Bozo Idiocy Number Four -

"At a similar moral level is another of lenin's favorite sources, Michael Vickery, whose book Cambodia 1975-1982 claims the Khmer Rouge "did not foresee, let alone plan," the genocide they inflicted; they were merely "petty bourgeois radicals overcome by peasantist romanticism" (p287). Even though the reputable academic sources estimate that the toll of the Khmer Rouge genocide *begins* at 1.5 million, Vickery's book gives the ludicrous figure 740,000 deaths under the Khmer Rouge. As with Starvation and Revolution, this speaks for itself."

Vickery says that the Khmer Rouge did not plan the genocide they inflicted. Well, duh! Stalin did not "plan" to kill millions, any more than Mao Tse Tung did. These deaths were the result of state-ideological structures of decision-making. In the case of the Khmer Rouge, it was also because they were absolute lunatics. But I daresay they did not have a document planning this exercise in advance.

His description of the Khmer Rouge as petit-bourgeois intellecutals hardly sounds like an apologetic to me. And Bozo provides no evidence to refute his claim or those of the other scholars whom I cite.


"There are many more examples of mangled history, false assertions, and outright misrepresentation exhibited in lenin's screed, but these should suffice to demonstrate the only point I wished to make: lenin simply *does* *not* *know* *what* *he's* *talking* *about*."

Let's see. Beezlebozo has falsely claimed that any figures for the deaths incurred as a result of the US bombing of Cambodia above 500,000 is a propaganda line only ever originating from the Khmer Rouge. He has falsely claimed that the US did not assist the Khmer Rouge, and that all help they did give was aimed at the "non-communist forces", (the Sihanoukists), when in fact they directly aimed assistance at Pol Pot's men, supplied them with material, diplomatic and financial support, covered up for them ideologically, and openly liaised with the Khmer Rouge's most disgustingly apologetic cretin, Prince Sihanouk. He has claimed that Pilger's court case somehow refutes the content of his documentary for ITV, without displaying any awareness that the context of the case (namely, the British government's intervention in what was at any rate a fraudulent trial) would in fact tend to show that the government did indeed have something to hide. He has claimed that in helping the Khmer Rouge and its allies, the US was merely observing "the principle of non-intervention", ensuring that Vietnam did not "swallow" Cambodia. Anyone remotely familiar with elementary reality would have to collapse in hysterics at the idea that the US ever observed "the principle of non-intervention" in relation to Indochina. But additionally, anyone familiar with the background would know that Vietnam had no intention of "swallowing" Cambodia, and had made two consecutive peace offers accepting the return of the Khmer Rouge without Pol Pot and Ieng Sary.

In other words, displaying ignorance, a willingness to distort and fabricate, and a crushing lack of irony, Bozo's last paragraph invites ridicule. I suggest you mail it to: spammert81@yahoo.com

Be prepared for the most amusing volleys of abuse you've ever encountered if he bothers to reply.