The American Spectator

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p> HOMAGE TO ORWELL br> Re: Hal G.P. Colebatch's Orwell's Bad Republicans : /p>

I found Hal's essay very compelling. It brought me back to my early years during the Reagan presidency when I gave up on my liberalism and membership in the Democratic Party and began on my road to becoming a Republican. Reading The Gulag Archipelago and Orwell's Homage to Catalonia inspired in me a life-long hatred and dread of Communism.

p>Contrary to what Hal wrote, Orwell's experience fighting for the POUM was the catalyst in his turning his back on communism. Nowhere in his text did I find anything other than disillusionment in finding that the Republican cause had been sold out. He started out with the usual good intentions of a lefty youth and became a man. The Orwell we know from 1984 and Animal Farm could not have become what he became without the Spanish Civil War. Yes, he joined the POUM all starry-eyed, but he ended up an enemy of communism. Please correct me if my memory is has forgotten details, but I believe Hal owes an apology to George. br> -- Doug Barth /p>

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