There danger to the world from mental illness.
Human nature. Putin. Where and why do people of such great power stoop to do terrible things to someone small and not powerful?
I wonder why, with all the power the Kremlin has, would they bother to kill an individual? Or why China would disappear an AIDS activist? James Bond is fiction written at a time when we were playing 'I got the bomb and you don't! ' which is at this point ..... (shrug).
After all, our Government lies to us all the time, we call them on it, and they keep right on lying as if our voices were never heard. The US is not some shining star of morality and righteousness.... We never were.
What have the American people brought on themselves?
Torture..
But, I suspect that Rumsfeld thought it was the only way to get something... this waterboarding... and playing 'stack the naked prisoner'.... It was to 'fix' the war... He was desperate to find something to make himself look like a leader... and got nothing and so resorted to the thrashing out at everything and everyone. He was desperate. The Administration was and is desperate. Rumsfeld as his cohorts have risen to office beyond their capabilities. Cheney, Rumsfeld, Kissinger, Baker... and Bush have no ideas and they have run out of excuses. Their chums in Congress haven't fired a neuron in years.
So, would Rumsfeld strike a small individual from on high? No, not Rummy... and from what I have read, he just fires folks who are not sycophants. We small folks are worthless to him.... worthless.
Why does a massive government lash out at the tiny individual? Why does it need to make a point to other tiny individuals? especially about inner governmental mistakes, misdeeds and malcontents? Are we looking at a bully gone wild or a bully loosing ground?
Let's say for example, that Alexander Litvinenko not only had the goods on Putin who caused the deaths of all of those children in Baslan, but let's say he was also was about spill the beans on the oil pipeline that will strangle the addicted US while it smashes the people of Chechnya? why would his particular death in London be important to Putin? Who cares that Bush and Blair faun over him as he laughs publicly at them? Who cares if he kills more and crushes more for a permanent power like Stalin? Why kill a tiny person when you have so much already?
As for China? Bird Flu, AIDS; they have hidden their flu isolates from the timid WHO and most likely the outbreaks from the world, and they ignored their growing number of AIDS victims. They 'disappeared' a person who was pointing out China's inaction and was about to take part in an AIDS rally on December 1st but was whisked away. Why on earth? How dare he talk to power? Hiding more stuff from the world? Why would they do that? They own the US who owns so many others!!!?
Then I remember about our own misbegotten leaders, Woodrow Willson, who was given too much good press... He was an oppressive leader, a bigot, and most likely, caused the spread the first pandemic around the world through our sick American troops.... For Wilson, maybe his aneurysms caused his dictatorial stance at home and inaction and loss of civility.... which allowed for the Versailles peace conference to go 'south' which led to the growth of the Third Reich in Germany.... and then.... Richard Nixon who liked to sneak about and listen to people. Ah, he was just that, voyeur with a grudge.
An aneurysm is not like the disease, Alzheimer's. The terrible brain wasting disease doesn't just show up out of the blue, but grows progressively worse and so, I suspect that Ronald Reagan was leading our country through a milky haze during the Iran-Contra stuff with only part of a brain in tact. He could not have thought to do individual killings.... just his ally, Negroponte....who I think we need to watch carefully.
The pressures of power are very real and what would be a personal and family tragedy for the common person, in a world leader becomes a world tragedy. As a world leader, in that position, the everyday stuff just isn't on the table, much. Even common thieves and perhaps mass murders.... are given some thought but not as much as the political chess game of keeping a country from generations of destitution. Even trying to keep some semblance of a positive legacy can make a leader vier from dipping into water cooler talk.
But a leader who cannot understand the small certainly cannot be human enough to lead. And, a leader who invests time to poison an agitator - even a smart and experienced one, is not well. A leader who is grasping for the industry over peoples' bodies, which powered us all to this point, is one that needs close attention. And the leaders who hide great national tragedy behind bluff is hiding something we all should know intimately.
We unfortunately live in very interesting times.