Gambit
04-03-2003, 09:28 PM
This is not meant to be an argumentative or controversial thread, so don't get riled up. I'm not pumping for the war in this one. This is more of an "I wonder..." kind of thing.
Given that:
1) Saddam is a not very nice guy, and has firmly held the reins of power for a number of years.
2) He's kept the populace under his thumb.
Will anyone who can do anything about it understand what happened, and try to keep it from happening again, or will there be a power struggle (maybe bloody, maybe just political) which puts Iraq back in a similar situation, though probably not as bad?
I recently re-read the Dune series again. Book 4, God Emperor of Dune, is about an emperor's son who can see the future, and also has the memories and personalities of all his ancestors available to him. He alters his body chemistry to merge himself with a creature that can live thousands of years, and so he will too, but he slowly becomes like one of these creatures in the process. Why?
So he could become a Tyrant. With a capital T. Why?
Because he saw that unless mankind learned how to choose its methods of leadership VERY carefully, it was doomed. And so he created over all human civiliztion an absolute dictatorship that lasted millenia, in order to impress upon the race that it really didn't want to ever be subject to that kind of leadership again. He drove that lesson home. His reign became the heart of legend and myth that would last for ages and ages to come.
Now, he wasn't an awful, greedy, torturing kind of tyrant, but still the restrictions he imposed were enough to chafe the ambitious members of the populace. Intentionally. And they chafed for a long, long, long, long time. There were rebellions throughout his reign, which he put down ruthlessly, until he let one succeed when his plans were ready. It was, of course, the death of him.
So, my question is, do you think that the people of Iraq will learn this lesson of tyranny from the rule of Saddam?
Given that:
1) Saddam is a not very nice guy, and has firmly held the reins of power for a number of years.
2) He's kept the populace under his thumb.
Will anyone who can do anything about it understand what happened, and try to keep it from happening again, or will there be a power struggle (maybe bloody, maybe just political) which puts Iraq back in a similar situation, though probably not as bad?
I recently re-read the Dune series again. Book 4, God Emperor of Dune, is about an emperor's son who can see the future, and also has the memories and personalities of all his ancestors available to him. He alters his body chemistry to merge himself with a creature that can live thousands of years, and so he will too, but he slowly becomes like one of these creatures in the process. Why?
So he could become a Tyrant. With a capital T. Why?
Because he saw that unless mankind learned how to choose its methods of leadership VERY carefully, it was doomed. And so he created over all human civiliztion an absolute dictatorship that lasted millenia, in order to impress upon the race that it really didn't want to ever be subject to that kind of leadership again. He drove that lesson home. His reign became the heart of legend and myth that would last for ages and ages to come.
Now, he wasn't an awful, greedy, torturing kind of tyrant, but still the restrictions he imposed were enough to chafe the ambitious members of the populace. Intentionally. And they chafed for a long, long, long, long time. There were rebellions throughout his reign, which he put down ruthlessly, until he let one succeed when his plans were ready. It was, of course, the death of him.
So, my question is, do you think that the people of Iraq will learn this lesson of tyranny from the rule of Saddam?