At least he didn't have rape rooms

I've always thought that the right-wing answer to the moral relativism that they so decry in liberals was straight-up hypocritism. However, I see that in the case of the late Chilean dictator Augustus Pinochet we're getting treated to a little bit of both. This gem was freshly nutpicked from a lovely site I found through LGM's early roundup of Pinochet apologia.

One thing we must be sure to do is place everything into context. What time in history was this? What else in the world was happening? These questions also have to answered before we can judge a person.

And just what are some of the things we're being asked to put in context? Randy Paul has the roundup.

• September 1974: Has DINA, his secret police organization plant a bomb in the car of General Carlos Prats, his predecessor in Buenos Aires. The bomb kills General Prats and his wife, Sofia. Debris from the explosion is found on the ninth floor of a building across the street.
• October 1975: Has DINA, through Italian fascist terrorist Stefano Della Chiae, attempt to murder Christian Democrat politician and regime opponent, Bernardo Leighton in Rome Italy. Leighton and his wife survive, but live in constant pain for the rest of their lives.
• September 1976: Has DINA blow up the car of Orlando Letelier in Washington, DC, killing Letelier and his American assistant, Ronni Moffitt.
• November 1978: The bodies of fifteen men who were "disappeared" are found in an abandoned limestone mine in Lonquen.
• June 1990: The bodies of 19 men who disappeared in the 1970's are discovered in a mass grave in Pisagua.
• September 1991: The bodies of 127 victims of Pinochet's regime are found buried secretly, two to a grave in some cases. Pinochet responds to television reporters by praising the economy of burying two to a grave.

And here's Mark Steyn, dregging up an eight year old piece defending Pinochet from the culturally insensitive outrage that is international law.

In a way, this is the new colonialism. The old imperial powers were more tolerant of local customs and culture than the monolithically Leftist body or international law. So, recently, the British Government forced its reluctant Caribbean colonies to abandon their prohibitions on homosexuality and bring their laws into compliance with the European Convention.

Ah...right-wing multiculturalism.