The Tyranny of Tyrants

Tyrannical regimes have very little crime.  Saddam Hussein had a way of dealing with criminals that democracies do not have:  they were summarily executed, whether guilty or not. Iraqi soccer players who did not win international tournaments were turned over to Saddam's sons who would torture them.  During Mussolini's tenure the Sicilian Mafia did not move a finger.  In North Korea, you can be executed at the whim of the tyrant there at the time.  Currently it's Rocket Man, aka, Kim Jung Un. In Communist China, if you criticize the tyrannical regime you're history.  Today the Roman Catholic Cardinal Joseph Zen is in prison for not being a supporter of the Chinese tyrants.  If you protest in Hong Kong, there is a good chance you'll end up dead or in prison for a long time.

Tyrants have come in history in many guises, Kings, dictators and tyrants of all stripes.  The English King, Henry VIII, not only ordered the execution of anyone who displeased him but his wives too. When Henry did not get what he wanted from the Catholic Church, he started his own church.  To this day, England follows that example.  In ancient history, for example, King Xerxes of the Persian Empire, decided to go to war against Greece because his wife wanted a Greek woman servant.  So King Xerxes mobilized hundreds of thousands of his troops to wage war on Greece, a war that he eventually lost at enormous costs.  Tyrants tend to get greedy.  Persia had one of the largest empires of all time in the 5th Century BC.  Their territory stretched from the entire Middle East, modern day Iran, to Egypt and as far as India.  Click here for a map of the Persian Empire of Xerxes. His empire was the greatest of his day. For a terrific history of this period there is a great new book, "The Harvest of War" by Stephen Kershaw.  Click here for a review of the book.

Nothing has changed.  Today we have tyrants such as Vladimir Putin of Russia, who, on his own accord, decided he wanted to reestablish the old Soviet Union, beginning with parts of Georgia and then followed by swallowing up the Crimea Peninsula and today, war on the entire country of Ukraine.  After less than a year of war it is estimated nearly 100,000 Russian soldiers have either been killed or wounded in battle, not to mention the loss of military equipment and the destruction of Ukraine.  A similar number of casualties for Ukraine.  All for the glory of one man.  During World War II Europe had an insane tyrant by the name of Adolf Hitler.  Just to satisfy his ego he invaded, conquered  and occupied most of Europe.  Not satisfied with that, he decided he wanted Russia too.  He lost.  On the way to doing all these misdeeds, he caused the death of about 50 million people.  German casualties in Russia alone amount to over three million soldiers.  The insanity goes on.  In the early 19th Century Napoleon of France had a big ego and wanted all of Europe and Russia too.  He waged war his entire life at the expense of the French solider. And the beat goes on.