MURDEROUS LEADERS
By Peter Fredson
November 21, 2005
History has long passages referring to the murderous inclinations of politicians. Just read the HISTORY OF THE PERSIAN WARS by Herodotus if you wish to get a feeling of revulsion at the senseless murders of many thousands of people because of the whims of leaders seeking power.
Perhaps you have heard of a leader of Haiti who marched a troop of soldiers over a cliff just to demonstrate to a visitor their absolute loyalty to him?
It is not necessary to go far back in time to find horrible examples of the deliberate destruction of human life. I remember well the murders of Adolph Hitler and his very-willing sycophants, the preemptive invasions of Poland, Czechoslovakia and many other countries, the deliberate murders of thousands of Jews and other people whom Hitler thought were not proper Aryans.
I have heard that Stalin also murdered, deliberately, millions of people under his "care." Mussolini murdered Ethiopians freely. Pol Pot was one of the most notorious murderers of people in his country. Idi Amin is a name to arouse nausea. There has been recent genocide in the Balkans, in African nations, some in the name of religion, which itself is a great motivation for murder.
In some Latin American countries the "right-wingers" delighted in taking critics up in helicopters then dropping them onto a mountain side, or in using torture and abuse culminating in death and then secretly burying the bodies. We still have forensic anthropologists in several countries engaged in digging up the bodies for identification and for "closure" to their loved ones.
In fact, all over this planet there have been massacres by "leaders", generally egomaniacs with a lust for wealth, reputation and power. They are generally sociopaths, without any social conscience, and often work under the cover of respectability such as religion or patriotism. They take power by stealth, lies, misinformation, secret murders and vigorous rhetoric. They often are charming scoundrels, with a good sense of humor, an easy laugh, and pleasant exterior.
In the U.S. we had a movement under a strategy for world conquest. It was first popular in college fraternity males.
The philosophy of Leo Strauss informed them that bullying, domination, preemption, disregard for tenderness, was the recipe for success.
They gradually merged with another movement which used religion as the motivating factor which regarded the imminent arrival of some sacred being that would usher in some sort of world destruction, after which everybody would be sorted out according to depth of belief and receive eternal reward or punishment in one or another specified place of delight or unbelievable pain.
Not content with amalgamating these two belief systems they also incorporated another group which vied for unlimited wealth and power.
These three lustful groups have now taken control of the U.S. under the very strange "leadership" of another of the world's petulant, irritable, irascible, egomaniacal, irresponsible people who was pushed onto the scene by his powerful father and made a poster boy for the belief groups just mentioned.
He believes in power grabs, stealth, misinformation, powerful unceasing propaganda, loyal sycophants, preemption, secrecy, and deniability. His respect for wealth and power and his religious beliefs have made him a very dangerous person. He intends to impose them on everybody in following the Strauss recipe for success.
He has promised his sycophants everything they desire and generally has accommodated them. He has given corporate executives unlimited leeway, White Supremacist Fundamentalists the promise to destroy the separation of Church and State, and his cronies the way to unlimited wealth and power.
In his power grabs he has successfully subordinated the majority in Congress to his Office, and made his office a branch of some type of Christian charismatic church. He allows no criticism, and employs attorneys who assure him that he is supreme in law. He fully intends to modify the Constitution, which he once swore to uphold, in order to fit his religious beliefs.
He fully intends to suborn the Supreme Court to incorporate his religious beliefs into their judicial deliberations. There will be no independent criteria, all will be fitted into his scheme of the rightness of things. And, worse, many of his followers will knowingly destroy the very democracy that gave them life in a favor of a theocracy or fascist state.
He has no hesitation in believing that he is the final arbiter of law, and that he can modify man-made law to suit what he considers to be appropriate quotations from his sacred book. The most horrible thought of all is that he will flout all ethics, morals, laws, constitutions whenever he get what he believes is a communication or command from some supernatural entity.
He is on record as saying that he was commanded to invade Iraq, and there is no doubt that his followers believe this nonsense and will continue to support his imposture whenever he receives "divine inspiration."
He cannot exist without sycophants, and he has excellent toadies in his cabinet and staff. They exert mighty efforts to keep his stupidities from public attention, or to uphold his lies with counter-slander, now known as Swift boating. They also use what looks like outrage, insult, appeals for "fairness", and other devices known to some of the other great murderers of history.
What Murders? We really don't know how many Muslims have been killed under his orders. No count seems to have been necessary, just like with all the other murderers of history. Not all leaders have personally murdered people, some call it war, some leaders have actually taken sword, or dagger, or spear, or firearm and taken life.
Saddam Hussein reportedly liked to do some of his own killing. Our President seems to be too cowardly to do that, but prefers to let others do it for him.
It is not necessary to know the actual reasons for murder as they are numerous and often vague. What is important in mass murders is that some leader is responsible for launching them, and that they cease as soon as possible, often by the demise of the offender
Mussolini was hung upside down. Hitler took his own life. Stalin died a peaceful death and his body was preserved as some sort of edifying spectacle for those left alive in his country. Eventually they all turn to dust or serve to give nourishment to worms and maggots.
But that is of very little consolation to benefit those tossed prematurely into the chip-grinder. Certainly not to loyal soldiers who must follow blindly the orders of whatever "leader" commands them to march over a cliff.