If this country still exists, and assuming President Al Caholic isn't in a cell somewhere (I can dream,
can't I?), one could imagine him saying similar things in the future. Only in Bush's case, I think he's
already elevated himself to the second coming of Christ.
This is from an interview with the charming and witty General Augusto Pinochet:
Gen. Augusto Pinochet turned 88 on Tuesday amid uproar after calling himself an "angel" in a television interview he said would be his last ever.
Speaking with a Spanish-language television station in Miami on Monday, Pinochet said he saw no reason to ask forgiveness from victims or their relatives for human rights violations during his 1973-1990 dictatorship.
"They are the ones, the Marxists, who should ask me for forgiveness," the ailing general said in the interview, recalling a 1986 attempt on his life in which five of his bodyguards were killed.
"I never ordered anyone to be killed. First of all, I am a Catholic," he added.
"I harbor no hatred or rancor. I am good, I feel like an angel," he said. "I have kindness. Whenever I can do something to help someone, I do it. To help anyone."
Excerpts of the interview with Canal 22 WLDP were published here and immediately sparked anger from government officials and opponents of Pinochet's authoritarian rule that left more than 3,100 people dead or missing.
Interior Minister Jose Miguel Insulza called the remarks "pathetic," a term also used by human rights lawyer Pamela Pereira, whose father is among dissidents still unaccounted for after being picked up by Pinochet's feared security services.
Human rights activist Lorena Pizarro said a more appropriate label for Pinochet would be an "angel of death."
Hmmmm....