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Is /his/ aware of the story of Colonel Andrés Nieto Carmona? He killed a lot of commies - but not in the way you might expect. His life story is a good illustration of how the world actually works. Settle in; I'll tell you a yarn from the Spanish civil war.
When the war began in 1936, Nieto was a local politician/social climber who managed to snag himself an officer position with the Republican (anti-Franco) forces early in the conflict. He had been a union organizer and mayor of a small city, and he was smart enough to know that being enlisted sucked, so he leaned on his connections to enter the military at an officer's rank, despite not having much military experience.
By late-1937, he had been promoted to Lieutenant-Colonel and was in charge of an entire division (the 40.ª División/40th Division), which was assigned to the Battle of Teruel. The basic structure of Republican forces were divisions (the largest units), which were made up of brigades (of several hundred to a few thousand each), which were made up of battalions. Brigades often had a surprising amount of independence, especially early in the war, since they had been assembled quickly from a variety of locations.
But Nieto was out of his fucking depth during his time at Teruel. Teruel was a notoriously nasty fight; a lengthy slog fought partly during one of Spain's worst winters in decades. Nieto nearly lost his marbles entirely, ordering a bizarre and sudden withdrawal which two of his brigades simply ignored (to his benefit, since those brigades managed to seize their objectives with significant losses).
This disobedience angered Nieto even as it saved his life and career - had those brigades obeyed the sudden withdrawal order, Franco's forces would have curbstomped the remaining elements from other divisions in the city, and Nieto probably would have been shot for incompetence.
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>>18517238
In particular, Nieto had it out for the 84th Mixed Brigade, one of the three brigades under his command in Teruel. 'Mixed' because it had been assembled from other units. Despite this, it had become a unified force since its creation. The 84th had fought through a nasty winter while taking 25% casualties and dislodging the Francoists from a stronghold bank building in the city. The photographer Robert Capa spent some time with them in Teruel, and the 84th gained a reputation for valor.
After seizing those strategic positions, the battered brigade was granted temporary leave behind the front lines for rest and medical treatment. They marched out to a position around 60km away to begin their vacation of at least two weeks, with most arriving on January 17th of 1938.
But Franco had actually been using Teruel as a trap, sacrificing a handful of defensive units to pull the Republicans into the city before slamming them with several more divisions. Republican forces had no time to properly entrench before Franco's backups arrived.
Facing the loss of the city, Republican commanders issued an emergency cancellation of leave, and ordered everyone (including the 84th) back to battle immediately on January 18th. The men of the 84th were in no condition to conduct another 60km winter march just to go back into battle, and several of its component battalions refused.
Nieto realized that he was faced with a potential rebellion (which would make him look bad, not long after the withdrawal order debacle), but that he could not directly discipline the men, since they were still armed, and were unified.
So, he devised a clever (and devious) plot, announcing that men who were too tired to rejoin the battle could instead deposit their weapons and board a fleet of outbound trucks, in order to travel further away from the front.
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>>18517239
The men who took that deal were driven away into the night, where the trucks suddenly stopped in an isolated forest area, and gunners in other trucks shot them with machine guns. 46 of them were executed at the scene; another 80 were sent to forced labor/prison camps. Two men managed to escape into the woods and later tell the story.
Nieto reported to his commanders that he had successfully identified and dealt with a Francoist cell within the brigade. Republican high command - though skeptical - could not afford to pull any commanders out of Teruel, and accepted his narrative.
Teruel was eventually lost to Franco, but Nieto kept ascending, making his way to full colonel during 1938, after some successes in the Levante offensive.
But things did not go well for Republican forces after that point. Franco pushed at the Republican fronts until they cracked in various sectors, finally splitting their territories into two separate isolated zones in 1939.
Clever boy that he was, Nieto correctly saw two important facts: 1. The war was lost for the Republicans, and 2. Franco's forces would kill him if they caught him. So, he snuck away from camp one night, abandoned his men, and made a daring and successful escape to the UK, where he was embraced during the incipient days of WWII as an anti-fascist exile.
However, he never really liked England or the English, and he began to make inquiries in the late-1950's about a return to Spain. Franco was embroiled in Cold War politics by this point, and wanted to demonstrate his capacity to rule a united Spain which included all former parties from the civil war.
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>>18517244
In exchange for endorsing Franco and denouncing his Republican past, Nieto was granted passage back to Spain, where he was given a modest but comfortable retirement home in the Canary Islands (far enough away from Madrid to keep him isolated if he turned out to be a subversive, but enough to keep him happy).
He remained happily in the Canaries until he died of old-age in the 1970's. Allegedly, Franco's security services stopped a couple of assassination attempts against him from his former Republican compatriots, but he was never openly or successfully attacked.
That's your bedtime story for the night. A sociopathic boss who slaughtered his own men, got away with it, fell upwards in life, and managed to live out his days in peace. That's how things work IRL. These are the type of men who 'succeed' in life in general.
>Sources: It came to me in dreams
But no; a lot of this material was specifically compiled in the 2004 book 'Si Me Quieres Escribir' by the investigative journalist Pedro Corral, interviewed here last year on the subject:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kuO-RDtFhFI
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The lesson to learn here is twofold.
One, the Stalinists were completely justified and vindicated, regular purges are absolutely necessary to ensure ideological purity and to snuff out traitors and opportunists like this rat.
Second, this just reinforces that the West failed Spain and let it fall to fascism because the parasitic elites in those countries feared Communism more than they did fascism. Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy sent actual troops while the Republicans only received volunteers like Orwell who, while commendable for their bravery, lacked the experience and numbers to make a difference.
Never again putos.