Osama, Saddam and the Mullahs

NMB, Florida December 18, 2001 A.H. Schectman

THINKING ALLOWED
Essays on Issues, Ideas and Reflections on the Times. Published Now and
Then. Opinions Pro or Con Are Welcome.

OSAMA, SADDAM AND THE MULLAHS

We could be speaking about Adolph, Benito and Tojo. There are in the world
causal creatures who gather around them the forces of destruction and bring
pain and untold suffering to people just like us. They rise above the
rabble they wish to control. Megalomania and misanthropy guide them to
kill, maim, imprison and make slaves of multitudes. Their models in ancient
history are the Pharaohs, Nebuchadnezzar, Darius and the Roman Emperors.
More recent history tells us of Ferdinand and Isabella, Napoleon, Kaiser
Wilhelm and Josef Stalin.

History teaches us that we recycle the past. We never learn from it until
it is too late. The twisted mind in a person of power never seems to be
seen by those who support, protect and help him to rise to power. The
sickness in a Nero is seen after the fact of his destroying the city of
Rome. The rampaging Genghis Kahn is alive and well in the person of Osama
bin Laden. We can be thankful that the world is very different today and the
forces he used to attack the immense power of the United States, although
terribly effective, are but pin pricks in the way of such things.

What would we do with Adolph, Benito, Tojo, Pharaoh, Nebuchadnezzar,
Darius, Nero and Genghis Kahn if they were doing their murderous thing
today? What are we to do with Osama, Saddam and the Mullahs who urge their
religious brethren to make martyrs of themselves while destroying innocent
lives?

My suggestion made many years ago in anticipation of someone using atomic
weapons post Nagasaki, was to declare him and his advisors to be arch
criminals against the human race. Such a person when captured alive (a
desired end) is to be dyed a permanent orange color and be made to serve the
human race by imaginative labor that would expose him to view but not to
injure him or allow anyone to be injured by what he does. The best
suggestion I heard about the tasks to which he would be set was to have him
plant but not to reap, to build but not to finish and to sleep but not to
rest.
Carol's Evaluation: 10 out of 10.