Dictator-of-the-Month Club

Introduction

The world's supply of dictators seems endless and inexhaustable. Before jumping into the highly-entertaining but dangerously self-righteous exercise of examining their faults, however, a word of caution is in order.

Do not imagine, for even a moment, that in mocking the evils and foolishnesses of these people, you have "discovered the enemy". There is no enemy. The enemy is you! The world has dictators not because they are evil, or because the world is evil, but because we are evil - all of us.

The world is, in fact, a pyramid of evil, and although the top stone is the most prominent, it is important to keep in mind that the pyramid rests upon its base, which is the whole of humanity. If you perceive the dictators at the top as being evil, bear in mind that it is the collective evil of the base - i.e., the rest of us - which holds them up.

Keep in mind also that it is impossible to really know what it is like to live in a country unless you yourself actually live there, and far less possible to know what is involved in ruling over a country unless you yourself are that ruler.

Do you think you could have done a better job of ruling Iraq than Saddam Hussein? Don't be so sure. The Iraqis have been uncontrollable since the Tower of Babel. In that country, it may be the case that if you don't run the people through a meat grinder, they'll run you through one. There's no way to know the truth, unless you can walk in their shoes.

Nevertheless, the Bible commands you to "rebuke your neighbor". Leviticus 19:17-18:

17. Thou shalt not hate thy brother in thine heart: thou shalt surely rebuke thy neighbour, and not suffer sin upon him.

18. Thou shalt not avenge, nor bear any grudge against the children of thy people, but thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself: I am the LORD.

Note that this passage terminates with the admonition to "love your neighbor as yourself", which many regard as the original form of the Golden Rule, pronounced later by Confucius, and, in its current form ("do unto others as you would have others do unto you") by Jesus. Concerning this admonition, to love your neighbor, Hillel, the greatest of the ancient Israelite Bible commentators, said "That is the whole Torah (i.e., the Jewish Law) - the rest is [merely] the commentary thereof" (Soncino Talmud, Shabbath 31a).

We who therefore must rebuke our dictators are not, alas, even close to being without fault or blemish ourselves, and yet our responsibilities are not thereby diminished. So, without further ado, let the examination of World Dictators begin!

 

June 2011
Dictator #1

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

Our very first “Dictator-of-the-Month” is none other than Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the President of Iran. The dubious honor of being our first dictator goes to him not because he’s bad for you, but because he’s bad for himself. And for his country as well.

He has outdone himself in outrageousness, by transgressing all bounds of reason no less than four times:

1. He’s a thief. He lost the 2009 presidential election by a huge margin, but he’s still holding onto the office. Hey, what’s he doing there? He lost! Obviously he stole the election. Then he murdered those who complained about it.

According to sources far more reliable than the Iranian government, the final election tally, for the 42 million votes cast, was:

Mousavi (the main opposition candidate):61-62%
Mehdi Karroubi: 24-28%
Ahmadinejad: 10-12%
Mohsen Rezai:   1-  5%

The Iranian government, under the rigid grip of Iran’s “Supreme Leader”, Ayatollah Khamenei, insists that Ahmadinejad won by a “huge margin”. Gee, do you think so?

2. He’s a coward. As soon as he was elected the first time (and I’m using the word “elected” loosely – who knows if he won the 2005 election either?), he was immediately identified from a 1979 photo as one of the students who had seized the US embassy in Tehran, holding the American workers there hostage for over a year.

(This, by itself, does not make him a coward; it merely makes him a fool. Even thousands of years ago, deadly enemies at war recognized that you don’t hurt or kill the messenger, because if you do so, you go from having little knowledge of your enemy to no knowledge at all. It is ancient wisdom that you never kill the messenger.)

No, seizing the embassy did not make him a coward. But when accused of involvement in the seizure, he immediately denied it. That makes him a coward.

3. He’s an ignoramus. In 2006, he personally sponsored a 2-day Holocaust denial conference entitled “International Conference to Review the Global Vision of the Holocaust”. His invited speakers included such luminaries as the former Grand Marshall of the Ku Klux Klan. Decent people everywhere were downright incredulous at this act of unfathomable ignorance. If he had merely said “I doubt that the number of Jews killed in World War II was as high as 6,000,000”, no one would have troubled themselves further about it. When he says, however, “No one was killed” (!), he’s playing us all for suckers.

But the joke’s on him.

His type of fool thinks that by engaging in such ridiculous mind games, he’s throwing stones at Judaism and Christianity, his perceived “enemies”. Actually, he’s throwing stones at himself.

How so? The argument is simple, but requires some knowledge of religion and religious history. In brief, Islam rests entirely on Christ, and Christianity rests entirely on Judaism, for the following reasons:

The validity of the ministry of Jesus is wholly dependent upon the authority of the Jewish scriptures. If idiots like Ahmadinejad say that the Jewish scriptures are fraudulent, which his kind indeed does say, then Christ too was fraud, since his ministry was established by the prophecies of Isaiah, Daniel, and other major Jewish prophets. If there was no Isaiah, and no Daniel, then what prophecy did Jesus fulfill? None!

Although it is not so well-known to Christians, the validity of the ministry of Muhammad is wholly dependent upon the authority of the Christian scriptures. When Muhammad fled for his life from Mecca to Medina, which was the event marking the very start of the Muslim calendar, he was received favorably in Medina only because the people there believed that he fulfilled a prophecy of a coming Deliverer. That prophecy - according to their beliefs - was uttered by Christ at the Last Supper, at which time (they believe), Christ said he would send them “Ahmad”, which is a familiar form of the Arabic name “Muhammad”. If Muhammad was indeed the “Ahmad” of Christ’s prophecy, then it was the word of Christ, and no other, which established his ministry. If, on the other hand, Muhammad was not the “Ahmad” of the Christ prophecy, then who was he? Nobody!

For a self-proclaimed Muslim to work earnestly to destroy Judaism is like a man who lives in a tall tree, and who doesn’t like the way the trunk looks. So he takes an axe, and, holding onto his branch with one hand, he hacks away at the hated trunk with the other. It’s hard to cut a tree trunk in half with one hand, while holding onto a branch with the other, but if he tries hard enough, he’ll succeed.

Then, of course, the tree will fall over, and the man will plunge to his death. Is that really a smart thing to do?

4. Ahmadinejad is a suicidal/homicidal misanthrope. He is, at this very moment, frantically purifying fissionable material for a nuclear bomb, which, perhaps more than any other one thing, shows what a fool he really is. He thinks it’s a really good joke on the West to pretend that he’s only building the reactors for “peaceful” purposes. But in fact, what he really wants is to be one of the “big boys” – the world leaders who have nuclear bomb toys to play with. If given the chance (which, thankfully, he never will be), Ahmadinejad will most assuredly take those bombs and hurl them at his perceived enemies. He’ll start with Israel, proceed to America, then take out Iraq. At that point the radiation levels will be so high, he’ll die – and we’ll die with him.

Does this man not deserve to be our first “Dictator-of-the-Month”?

 

 

July 2011
Dictator #2

Bokassa I
“Emperor” of the Central African Republic

Jean-Bédel Bokassa led a military coup in 1966, installing himself as dictator of his country, the Central African Republic (hereafter to be abbreviated “CAR”). In the old colonial days, CAR was the former French colony Ubangi-Shari (part of French Equitorial Africa). The reason you probably don’t know much about this country is that it is a wretchedly-poor place, with a United Nations “Human Development Index” of 0.369, ranking it 179 out of 182 nations ranked. In other words, it is pretty close to being the poorest spot on earth.

When you read about Bokassa, you’ll know why.

For the first 11 years of his bloody and corrupt reign (1966-1976) he ruled, in the grand tradition of Idi Amin, as “President for Life”. Then, from 1976 to his ouster in 1979, he really outdid himself – crowning himself “Emperor Bokassa I”. His coronation ceremony cost more than the entire gross national product of the CAR for a whole year!

After his ouster he lived in exile, but he audaciously returned to the CAR in 1986, and, in the following year, was tried for treason and murder. Not surprisingly, he was convicted, but he only served six years in prison, 1987-1993, then was miraculously released. He died in the CAR in 1996.

So why, you might ask, is Bokassa in a “Dictator-of-the-Month” column now? After all, he’s been out of power for over 30 years, and he’s been dead for over a decade!

The answer is that he was a monster of such proportions that I have never been able to put him totally out of my mind. They simply don’t make dictators like that anymore.

Bokassa was the son of a village chief in French colonial Africa; one of 12 children. According to Wikipedia, the French company Forestière, for all intents and purposes, was using the people of that region as forced laborers, and Bokassa’s father, at a certain point, resisted French rule. For this he was beaten to death in the town square. Bokassa’s mother committed suicide a week later. This might indeed explain any hostile attitudes he had toward the French, but it hardly explains his crimes against his own people.

He received a French language education at a Christian school (Ecole Sainte-Jeanne d’Arc), then, in 1939, he joined the army, rising to the rank of sergeant major. During World War II he served in the Free French Forces, fighting the Nazis. After the War he served in the French army in Indochina, eventually being granted membership in the Legion d'Honneur. There is thus at least one honorable item in his CV.

Subsequently, he continued to serve in the French army; first in France, then in French Equitorial Africa, where he eventually rose to the rank of Captain. Then, in 1960 - the year CAR was granted independence - good fortune came to him. His cousin, David Dacko, became the first President of the new republic, whereupon Bokassa was appointed commander-in-chief of its 500-man army.

He then began to irritate everyone by repeatedly donning all his military decorations and sitting himself next to President Dacko in public ceremonies, which was contrary to the government’s established social protocols. President Dacko, however, was merely amused, being quoted as saying "Colonel Bokassa only wants to collect medals and he is too stupid to pull off a coup d'état". Really? When the country began to sink economically under the corrupt rule of his cousin, and Bokassa learned that Dacko intended to demote him, he made his move. On January 1, 1966, using his 500-man army, he deposed his cousin, establishing himself as the new leader of the CAR by the usual 3rd world method of military coup.

He quickly revoked the nation’s constitution and dissolved the National Assembly, banned all political parties (except his, of course), and imposed a number of new rules and regulations: Everyone of working age had to provide proof that they had jobs, or else they would be fined or imprisoned; begging was banned; tom-tom playing was allowed only during the nights and weekends; and a "morality brigade" was formed in the capital to monitor bars and dance halls. But who was monitoring the "monitors"?

In the process of time, Bokassa got into a dispute with one of his co-conspiritors from the coup that had brought him to power, one Captain Alexandre Banza. Banza had risen to become Bokassa’s Minister of State, and it seems that he was now considering a coup of his own. Bokassa ordered Banza detained, which required that his captors break both his arms and throw him into the trunk of a Mercedes. According to Time magazine, Banza "was dragged before a Cabinet meeting where Bokassa slashed him with a razor. Guards then beat Banza until his back was broken, dragged him through the streets of Bangui and finally shot him." The French daily evening newspaper Le Monde reported that Banza was killed in circumstances "so revolting that it still makes one's flesh creep".

According to Wikipedia, “two versions concerning the end circumstances of [Banza’s] death differ on one minor detail. Did Bokassa tie him to a pillar before personally carving him with a knife that he had previously used for stirring his coffee in the gold-and-midnight blue Sèvres coffee set, or was the murder committed on the cabinet table with the help of other persons? Late that afternoon, soldiers dragged a still identifiable corpse, with the spinal column smashed, from barrack to barrack to serve as an example.”

Bokassa’s career as a memorable Dictator, suitable for this web site, was launched!

In 1971, Bokassa promoted himself to full general, and on March 4, 1972, declared himself “President For Life”. This precipitated a second coup attempt, which he survived. Subsequently his behavior was described as becoming increasingly bizarre and unpredictable, igniting yet a third coup attempt in 1976, which he also survived.

At that point in his career, France was supporting his regime. In 1975, the French president Valéry Giscard d'Estaing declared himself a "friend and family member" of Bokassa. The nature of this “friendship” was that France gave Bokassa money, and Bokassa took d'Estaing on hunting trips in Central Africa. Can you imagine what took place on these trips? Oh, I almost forgot to mention it - CAR also supplied France with uranium.

This “friendship” peaked in December 1977, when “President-For-Life” Bokassa had himself crowned “Emperor Bokassa I”. "First", and hopefully last! The coronation ceremony lasted for two days, and cost about $24 million dollars, which was more than the annual budget of the whole impoverished Central African Republic. He put a diamond-studded crown on his head, and sat himself down on a 2-ton golden throne modeled in the shape of a large eagle.

In 1979, Bokassa made friends with Daffy Dictator Muammar Qadaffi, supreme leader of Lybia (who himself is coming soon to a web page on this site!). This offended the French, who immediately cut off all “official” support to the CAR. Unfazed, and still under the influence of Daffy (and in the great “tradition” of celebrity boxer Mike Tyson), Bokassa converted to Islam, but converted back to Catholicism almost immediately afterwards.

Although Bokassa claimed that the new empire would be a constitutional monarchy, no significant democratic reforms were ever made, and suppression of dissenters was widespread. Torture was said to be especially rampant, with allegations that even Bokassa himself participated in beatings and executions.

It was at this point that pervasive rumors began circulating, that Bokassa had taken to consuming human flesh.

By January 1979, all French support for Bokassa, both “official” and unofficial, was gone. The people were rioting in the streets for food, and the government responded by massacring them. But the final straw came when, in April 1979, a large number of elementary school students in Bangui and elsewhere were arrested. Their crime? They had refused to wear over-priced, government-mandated school uniforms with Bokassa's image on them. These dandy garments were made in his wife’s clothing store, and wearing these idiotic uniforms was therefore “The Law”. Around 150 children were killed. Bokassa participated in the massacre, beating children to death with his cane.

The massive worldwide press coverage which followed the deaths of the students opened the way for "Opération Barracuda", a successful coup in which French troops invaded the Central African “Empire”, converting it back to the Central African “Republic” by restoring former president David Dacko to power. As for would-be Emperor Bokassa, he fled into exile in the Ivory Coast.

Bokassa was sentenced to death in absentia in December 1980 for the murder of numerous political rivals. Incredibly, he returned to the CAR from exile in 1986. What made him think he could get away with this, we may never know. Be that as it may, he was immediately arrested by the Central African authorities as soon as he stepped off the plane, and was tried for 14 different charges, including treason, murder, cannibalism, illegal use of property, assault and battery, and embezzlement.

Twenty-seven teenagers and young adults, the only survivors of some 180 children who were arrested and beaten in April 1979, testified at the trial. Apparently someone had thrown rocks at Bokassa's Rolls-Royce, precipitating the mass arrests. On the childrens’ first night in jail, Bokassa visited the prison personally, and screamed at them for their insolence. He then ordered the prison guards to club the children to death. Bokassa participated, smashing the skulls of at least five children with his ebony walking stick.

Throughout the entire trial, Bokassa denied all the charges against him. Doesn’t he fit the Dictator mold perfectly?

With respect to the cannibalism charge, former president Dacko testified that he had seen photographs of butchered bodies hanging in cold-storage rooms of Bokassa's palace immediately after the 1979 coup. Bokassa's former security chief of the palace testified that he had cooked human flesh stored in the walk-in freezers, and served it to Bokassa.

The prosecution did not examine the rumours that Bokassa had served the flesh of his victims to French President Giscard and other visiting dignitaries.

As for the money, government prosecutors tried to recover some of the millions of CAR francs that Bokassa had diverted from the national treasury, and from both social and charity funds, for his own personal use. Very little was recovered – it had almost all been spent.

Bokassa was found guilty of all but the cannibalism charges. He was sentenced to death, but a subsequent President, Kolingba, voided the death penalty entirely, commuing Bokassa’s sentence to life in prison in solitary confinement. The following year, for some reason, the sentence was reduced to 20 years. With the return of democracy to the Central African Republic in 1993, President Kolingba declared a general amnesty for all political prisoners as one of his final acts as President, and Bokassa was released on 1 August 1993.

He died of a heart attack in 1996 in Bangui, at the age of 75. He had 17 wives and a reported 50 children.

With respect to the song “Mine”, which brought you to this web page, do you see now why the lyrics had to be obscene? I tried a “sanitized” version of the song at one point, but the sanitized version just doesn’t fit the subject matter.

 

September 2011
(We missed August!)

Dictator #3

Vladimir Putin
President/Premier/etc. of the new Russia (Federation/Republic/etc.)

Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin (b. 10/07/1952) is arguably the most powerful political leader on earth.

Insofar as it’s possible to ascertain such things, he has far more autonomy than any president of the United States could ever have, wherein we may reasonably conclude that the only other world political position which could possibly outrank him for power would be Premier of China. The ascendency of China, however, to the position of global distinction it now occupies, is fairly recent, and based primarily upon economic factors. It seems unlikely that China has yet become a military power which could stand up to Russia (but I wouldn’t bet that this won’t change soon, if indeed it hasn’t already changed).

In addition to the power he wields as Premier of Russia, Putin also has the distinction of being the most popular political leader on earth as well. Published polls indicate an approval rate, among the Russian people, of 80%, vastly in excess of the approval rating of the President of the United States. The Russians seem to love this guy, even though it’s painfully transparent that he’s a ruthless dictator.

What’s his secret? I’ll answer the question with a question: What do people love most?

I hope you said “money”, because, even though it’s a global disgrace that it’s so, it is indeed so. Since the original deal mankind made with the Devil, people have always loved money the most. And Putin “gave” money to his people. According to Wikipedia:

“Putin is credited with bringing political stability and re-establishing the rule of law. During his presidency, Russia's economy bounced back from crisis, seeing GDP increase by 72%..., poverty decrease by more than 50%, and average monthly salaries increase from $80 to $640.”

Yikes. I’d vote for him myself.

Maybe.

Here are two important questions: (1) How did he rise to power? (2) What are his intentions?

The first question would be almost impossible to answer. The story begins with the fact that Putin’s grandfather was Lenin’s cook, and later Stalin’s cook. I guess grandpa didn’t put any poison in the food, which, considering the evil personalities of his employers, must be regarded as evidence of a true devotion. Be that as it may, one might well assume that this family was always close to the heart of power.

Vladimir Putin attended Leningrad State University, graduating in 1975 with a degree in international law. While at college he joined the Communist Party. Upon graduation he joined the KGB. From that point on, his history is a head-spinning succession of appointments to major political positions. It is difficult or impossible to know what these jobs actually were. Here are some of the highlights, with dates and details where available. Don’t read it too closely, because you’ll learn nothing! I post it merely to illustrate the bewildering nature of his rise to power (most of the following timeline is taken from Putin's Wikipedia article):

  • 1975, joins KGB.
  • 1975, joins faculty of Leningrad State University, International Affairs section, where he does “surveillance on student body”.
  • 1990, advisor on international affairs to the Mayer of Leningrad.
  • 1991, appointed to “Committee for External Relations of the St. Petersburg Mayor’s office” (“international relations and foreign investments”). While at this post Putin was accused of misappropriating $93 million in non-ferrous metal exports. No formal charges were ever filed.
  • 1994, appointed “first deputy head of the administration of the city of St. Petersburg”.
  • 1995, appointed “leader, St. Petersburg branch of ‘Our Home Is Russia’ political party.”
  • 1995, appointed “head, Advisory Board of the Sankt-Peterburgskie Vedomosti” (Russia’s historically-first newspaper, established by Peter the Great in 1702).
  • 1996, moved to Moscow, got appointed “Deputy Chief of Presidential Property Management Department” (a shadowy organization “responsible for the foreign property of the state and organized transfer of the former assets of the Soviet Union and Communist Party to the Russian Federation”).
  • 1997, appointed by President Boris Yeltsin to be “deputy chief of the Presidential Staff”, and “chief of the Main Control Directorate of the (above-mentioned) Presidential Property Management Department”.
  • 1998, appointed by Yeltsin “head of the FSB” (“one of the successor agencies to the KGB”).
  • 1998, became “permanent member of the Security Council of the Russian Federation”.
  • 1999, appointed one of three “First Deputy Prime Ministers”. On the same day, Yeltsin appointed him “acting Prime Minister of the Government of the Russian Federation”. 1999, upon President Yeltsin’s unexpected resignation, Putin, in accordance with Russian constitutional law, became “Acting President of the Russian Federation”. His first act was to pass a Decree that protected Yeltsin and his associates from an impending investigation for corruption. 2000, elections held. Putin wins the Presidency.

From that point forth, he acted as dictators have always acted, using his powers to disable all political challengers.

The most widely-publicized event of his first term was the 2002 Moscow theater hostage crisis, where 40 to 50 Islamic terrorists took 850 hostages, demanding the withdrawal of Russian forces from Chechnya. After two days, Russian forces pumped an unknown toxic chemical agent into the building's ventilation system, which caused everyone in the theatre to lose consciousness. In the ensuing government raid, the terrorists were defeated. A total of about 170 people died, mostly because of the toxic gas which had been pumped in.

The use of the gas was widely condemned as heavy handed, but Putin’s popularity, instead of plummeting, only increased, soaring to 83%!

In 2004 Putin was re-elected to a second term, receiving 71% of the vote. This great electoral popularity, however, was offset by the realization that his administration was brutal and repressive. Several journalists who wrote unfavorably of the government were murdered, the most notorious example being the shooting of journalist Anna Politkovskaya, who had written about corruption in the Russian army. During that period, according to a Russian protest organization called the “Center for Journalism in Extreme Situations”, 300 criminal cases were filed against journalists who wrote articles deemed unfavorable to government interests.

A former KGB agent named Alexander Litvinenko accused the government of responsibility for the abovementioned Politkovskaya murder, and had to flee to London to avoid persecution. Although he was granted political asylum in England, he died a hideous death from Polonium-210 poisioning in London in 2006. Few commentators doubt that it was a government “hit”, presumably ordered by Putin himself, or, in any event, a murder of which the President strongly approved.

In 2007, a Russian sociologist named Igor Eidman described the Putin regime as an "extreme right-wing dictatorship”. In 2008, a government official named Vincent Golitsyne wrote: "...under the traditional Russian political system that [Putin] has revitalized, not only do officials not mean what they say, but also that obfuscation is essential to the way it all works..."

In 2008 Putin’s second term ended. The Russian Constitution has term limits, and he couldn’t run again. Dmitry Medvedev became the new President, but Putin was immediately appointed Prime Minister. It is generally assumed that he remains firmly in control of Russia.

As to what can be expected in the future, Bret Stephens of The Wall Street Journal wrote:

"Russia has become, in the precise sense of the word, a fascist state. It does not matter here, as the Kremlin's apologists are so fond of pointing out, that Mr. Putin is wildly popular in Russia: Popularity is what competent despots get when they destroy independent media, stoke nationalistic fervor with military buildups and the cunning exploitation of the Church, and ride a wave of petrodollars to pay off the civil service and balance their budgets.”

In its 2008 World Report, Human Rights Watch wrote:

"As parliamentary and presidential elections in late 2007 and early 2008 approached, the administration headed by President Vladimir Putin cracked down on civil society and freedom of assembly. Reconstruction in Chechnya did not mask grave human rights abuses including torture, abductions, and unlawful detentions. "

This latter report compared Putin to Robert Mugabe, the brutal and repressive pseudo-leader of Zimbabwe (and I say “pseudo” because Mugabe was voted out of office long ago, but remains in power to this day).

What sort of a man is Putin? His father, according to biographers, was a dedicated Communist and a militant atheist, while his mother was supposedly a devout, churchgoing Russian Orthodox Christian. What Putin himself believes is not known.

He likes to get photographed in macho postures, on several occasions bare-chested, and in the presence of wild animals. He has been a judo expert all his life, having earned a “sixth degree black belt”; something he likes to remind you of periodically. He obviously wants you to know that he will control you through power and corruption, and if these don’t work, he’ll tear you limb-from-limb with his bare hands.

The people like this sort of man. At least the Russian people do.

At least the Russian press says they do.

As if being the most powerful and most popular world leader wasn’t enough, Putin may also be the wealthiest man in Russia, if not in the world. According to “official” government statistics, he’s worth 3.7 million rubles, which is equivalent to $150,000. It is alleged, however, that he secretly owns 4.5% of Gazprom, the Russian petroleum juggernaut. This holding alone would be worth $13 billion. He also is believed to own 37% of a company called Surgutneftegaz (worth $20 billion), and 50% of another oil-related business called Gunvor (a company with annual earnings of about $40 billion). If so, he would be unequivocally the richest man in Russia.

Putin is a fairly-open adversary of the West, especially Israel. Considering this, and in the light of what we know about his activities in Russian politics, one cannot help but wonder whether he will prove to be the biblical Gog.

I suspect we won’t have to wait too much longer to find out the answer to this.