Pro-war left favourite George Orwell, on the pro-war left: “If one loves democracy, [their] argument runs, one must crush its enemies by no matter what means. And who are its enemies? It always appears that they are not only those who attack it openly and consciously, but those who ‘objectively’ endanger it by spreading mistaken doctrines. In other words defending democracy involves destroying all independence of thought.” (via Matt T)

Quite. I remember reading a similar, probably apocryphal quite from a Latin American general making the transition to democracy. “We must have democracy,” he said. “And anyone who opposes democracy I will jail, I will destroy, I will crush like a bug.”