Re: Idi Amin – Mad Man or Man Of The World?
[quote=”Fatguy”]Mr. Bush may be very religious, He is more a “puppet ruler” and would never have gained power without daddy (so is not included as a world leader in this discussion, but his “handlers” are…..).[/quote]
agreed
[quote]the reality may be that these are very sane likable people and not the misanthropes the press may make them out to be. [/quote]
From the vantage point of sadists perhaps. Let’s face it, some people are just sociopaths.
[quote]Why does Canadian Prime Minister Chretien “vacation” with Cuba’s Fidel Castro [/quote] As far communists despots go (see your own list), he isn’t [i]that[/i] bad.
[quote]Why does France’s Chirac “hang out” with Iraq’s Saddam Hussain.[/quote] It probably has nothing do with all those big ($$) contracts, between the two countries.
[quote]Perhaps dinner with Amin would be very enlightening[/quote] Like trying a new dish?
[quote]do you really want a leader that thinks like the “masses”?[/quote] In Amin’s case, “You are what you eat”
[quote]What about Stalin, Hitler, Chairman Mao, The Emperor Of Japan (still responsible even though it was others that started hostilities), Ho Chi Minh, Mussollini, etc….. [/quote]
Do forget Pol Pot, Kahn, Nero (and most the other Roman emperors)
[quote]why is Hitler “evil” and Stalin not?). [/quote]
Re: Hitler – I can give you over 12 million reasons
Re: Stalin – I don’t belive I’ve ever heard him not refereed to as evil. (Hence the “Evil Empire” (yes I know that came later, but you get the idea)) Seriously this guy let 5 million of his own people starve/freeze to death because his bureaucracy forgot to send supplies to that area of the country!
[quote]The people of Iraq consider Bush to be evil….. [/quote] As do many western people, myself included!
You do have a point with the PR and spin doctors. It a long political tradition, and its inescapable. Any good ruler must lie a little to keep the populace happy. But compare little things like “I did not have sexual relations with that women”, to things like Saddam was trying to acquire African Uranium.
Stalin had his own PR work too. he capitolized of his relationship to Lennin. He had Lennin’s body embalmed to have him appear as a symbol for the people. A symbol easily asociated with him. Stalin’s own name is anther example. “Any dictator who changes his name from Yugash Feely (sp?) to [b]MAN OF STEEL[/b] gets my vote, so to speak”
As for “evilness”, which is worse lying to the world to start a war for a natural resource, causing thousands to die; or personally brutally killing a thousand in ones own torture chambers?
In our culture, the latter.