Tuesday, October 12, 2010

I'm Ready For My Close-Up, Mr. DeMille

Now admit it. You forgot to fly your flag at half-staff on October 9 to honor the passing of that great freedom fighter, Che Guevara. Yes, it has been forty-three years since Che was confronted in the jungle by two Bolivian soldiers, dropped his gun, and uttered the immortal words of revolutionary defiance: "Don't shoot. I'm Che. I'm worth more to you alive than dead!"

Now if that doesn't stir your revolutionary heart, you must have no heart at all. I'm also guessing you noticed that the accompanying image is not the one that shows up on tee-shirts worn by doofus college students who don't know the first thing about this cowardly, sadistic, mass-murdering icon of the left. The peace and love crowd are always stirred by his other immortal words: "My nostrils dilate while savoring the acrid odor of gunpowder and blood. Crazy with fury, I will stain my rifle red while slaughtering any vencido (defeated one) that falls into my hands.!"

The failed dentist (no, folks, he wasn't a "doctor" as the left would have it) was extremely brave, at least while those he had fought were bound and helpless. He took such a sadistic pleasure in the cold-blooded murder without trial of his enemies that he had a hole knocked in the wall of his quarters so that he could watch the executions when he wasn't performing them himself. He particularly seemed to favor the muzzle-to-head shattering of the skulls of teenage boys. Their words prior to their impending execution were somewhat different from Che's after his capture: "Viva Cuba Libre! Viva Cristo Rey! Abajo Comunismo! (Long live free Cuba. Long live Christ the King. Down with communism)."

For those of you who aren't completely convinced of just how grave the Cuban missile crisis was, here are the words of El Che before Castro decided he was becoming a liability: "To achieve our ideals, I crave millions of atomic victims. The U.S. is the great enemy of mankind. Against those hyenas there is no option but extermination. We will bring the war to the imperialist enemies. We must keep our hatred against them alive and fan it to paroxysms!" When President Kennedy allowed as how he didn't care to be nuked, the Russians backed off their missile installations, and Fidel decided it was time for Guevara to go spread the revolutionary word somewhere else.

Che found that after leaving Cuba, it wasn't so easy to kill people who were free to shoot back at him. He dodged and weaved, but rarely put himself in the line of fire. After running from the sound of the guns in civil wars in Africa, Guevara returned to the western hemisphere and attempted to restore himself to his former glory in Central and South America. His own birth nation of Argentina put a price on his head. Otherwise, he was generally ignored. To paraphrase the Bible, "a cowardly murderer is without honor in his own land."

Che's swan song took place in Bolivia, where he attempted to conduct a comic-opera guerrilla movement. He should have used gorillas. They would have been more effective. There was a lot of shooting and killing, but it was mostly the Guevaristas shooting each other in confusion. That Bolivian jungle is very disorienting, don't you know. Filthier and thinner than usual, Che's denouement came while he was hiding out (from his enemies or his guerrillas is unclear). Two startled Bolivian privates were suddenly facing a fully-armed "warrior." With a full clip, Che could very likely have done in the two surprised youngsters. Instead, he dropped his fully-loaded weapon, and ignominiously surrendered.

Che's ubiquitous image is exceeded in recognition only by images of Christ. Think of it as the images of hell and heaven--in that order. One is the Savior of mankind who gave Himself to the cross for the redemption of all humanity. The other is the mass-murdering coward who was perfectly happy to try to save his own miserable life by surrendering without even a fight. The only question that remains in my mind is whether or not Flocabulary has a nice video on the subject.

As a final note, the coward's body was finally removed from its nondescript grave in Bolivia and brought back to his beloved Cuba in the 90s. There was much fanfare, and plenty of speeches from the Castros extolling the virtues and heroism of the communist icon. At long last, Che was proven wrong. Fidel Castro finally realized that Che was more valuable dead than alive.

17 comments:

Tennessee Jed said...

excellent post, Hawk. Not only do I freely admit failing to post a flag at half mast, I also admit I never took the time to see what the story was with Che. Had I been stopped on the street and asked about him, I would have come off like these stupid teens who can't even name the Vice-President. Your article does that rather nicely, I think, so now I know.

T_Rav said...

What a great story! I should have made popcorn before I got to the part about him whimpering for his life. Oh well.

AndrewPrice said...

So you're saying that all these leftists who wear his t-shirts are deluded? I'm shocked.

Notawonk said...

when i see the deluded in one of his shirts, i openly mock them.

me:tell me quick! what did che stand for?!

them: um....um....

me: he was a murderous bastard.

them: wait. didn't he help grape growers?

maybe that's not verbatim, but close enough. they are worse than idiots; they are pawns.

Tehachapi Tom said...

Wasn't he a self proclaimed freedom fighter? The reason our left leaning college professors wear that stupid T-shirt is to identify with the brave freedom fighter, their opinion.
It would be interesting to hear his view of how well the revolution has turned out for Cuba. It is reported that in Havana there are no dogs, cats or rats they have all been eaten. So much for the advantages for the people in a socialist state.

Anonymous said...

Tennessee: The MSM, with the help of Dan Rather, Walter Cronkite, Edward R. Murrow, and many other left-leaning "journalists" glamorized Che and refused to highlight his sadistic, murderous ways. A whole generation grew up thinking that he was a brave and bold warrior who led his heroic bands against a repressive regime. In fact, there is no historical evidence that he was ever even in a major pitched battle, let alone one that he led. He was nothing more than pure fiction, except for the murder and execution parts.

Anonymous said...

T_Rav: It's only a dream, but I'd love to see a movie that really shows the Che Guevara who was the greatest self-promoter prior to Barack Obama. Castro didn't get rid of him because of his mass murders and love of killing bound prisoners, but rather because Che's legend was becoming bigger than his own. The Motorcycle Diaries and Che are both lies, from beginning to end, and everywhere in-between. The real Che fits in better with the monsters in Texas Chainsaw Massacre or Saw.

Anonymous said...

Andrew: I'm not sure that they're even deluded. It's pop culture at its worst, displaying the image of a monster about whom they know absolutely nothing. It's like gang members wearing big gold crosses while they're slicing and dicing their rivals. The symbol has absolutely nothing to do with their alleged thinking processes.

Anonymous said...

Patti: It's another reason that I'm enjoying living in the sticks. In San Francisco, there was a "wildly indignant" demonstration about something at least once a week. But at any leftist rally, regardless of the cause, there were two items of radical chic visible and ubiquitous at every one of them. Top dog was the tee-shirt image of Che Guevara. In a poor second place was the face of Mumia abu Jamal, beloved murderer of a police officer who had a wife and two young kids.

Libertarian Advocate said...

All these wonderful Holidays to celebrate. I can't hope to keep up with 'em all.... Please give us all a three day heads-up for the next one, so we can chill some Dom in time.

Joel Farnham said...

LawHawk,

The left loves murderers, bombers and pedophiles. It is a wonder why anyone would back them at all.

Anonymous said...

Libertarian Advocate: I do feel as if I've been derelict in my duty to keep everybody informed of these important holidays. I'll try to do better in the future. I also forgot to point out that yesterday was Indigenous Peoples Day (formerly known as Columbus Day). I'll bet there's a Flocabulary video for that one.

Anonymous said...

Joel: It's even better than that. They love them, they encourage them, they idolize them, then they re-write the story to make them into brave freedom fighters instead of the mass murderers they really are. Who would have been interested in an unwashed, smelly, bearded psycho communist slogan-shouter if he hadn't first been re-invented into a brave soldier for the oppressed masses?

Besides, terms such as "murderer, bomber, and pedophile" are so judgmental. Forget thee not--the ends justify the means.

StanH said...

Though in my younger days I was antiestablishment, I never got into the Marxist BS, I was more Libertarian. The last thing I wanted was more oppressive government, to me that’s what Che represented, and still does.

I did a Patti as well. Some years back when my son was a Senior in High School, he came to the house with a group of guys and one was wearing a blazing red tee-shirt with a Che silhouette on the front. Being the smartass SOB that I am, I asked, “What’s your favorite thing about Che?” The kid turned red in the face, and answered in his know it all righteous tone, “He’s for the little people, man.” I, in my best you’re a dumbass tone said something to the effect, “He’s a butchering sadistic murdering coward who wouldn’t piss on your head if your head were on fire, sport! …get your facts straight.” Two things happened that day, that kid never came back to my house, and my son thanked me, because shortly thereafter his friend stopped with the Che crap…victory!

Anonymous said...

Stan: Great story. I wish more people would do to these punks what you and Patti propose. If you're going to stand for something, at least know what the hell that something is. Wearing a Che tee-shirt because he was "for the little guy" is not much different from wearing a Hitler tee-shirt because he made the trains run on time. It's mindless. It's ignorant. And it's dangerous.

It would also be nice if they could understand that all the murderous dictators of the twentieth century were "for the little guy" and shared a common political philosophy--socialism.

AndrewPrice said...

Lawhawk, That's very true. It's style without substance, statement without understanding. It's pathetic.

Anonymous said...

Andrew: It's a close relative of mindless sycophancy.

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