Some people are having a good time deploring this behavior by presumably less civilized people (scumbags all!), secure in our stately history of voting the rascals out at regular intervals. But I applaud it. I think it is most fitting. Ghadaffi being dragged into the street, beaten, and killed represents plenary justice, administered by the proper persons. This violent and disgusting public display should have a salutary effect on dictators everywhere. The message in the world-wide media reads: WATCH THIS! THIS IS WHAT CAN HAPPEN TO YOU!
It's not that I'm against killing dictators.
Au contraire. I'm all for dispatching the bastards with alacrity. It's just the sodomizing I have a problem with. But that's just me.
The one dictator's (and his wife's) demise I was able to read about in real time was the Ceau?escus. A quick summary drumhead trial, death sentence and then the courtyard (to run around like chickens with their heads cut off [yeah, okay, that's bad, but you know what I mean]). The problem, of course, is when to stop such trials. No one wants those trials as a standard within the criminal justice system. Yet such trials do have their place. There was something comforting (as well as disconcerting) about Saddam being hanged. For all the handwringing so many have about good and evil, it seems a lot of people innately know evil, and are good with getting rid of it. For those under such a dictatorial regime, getting rid of the culprit quickly is a tenet of belief to enable a quicker national healing. But the revolution must be popular, and is best done by the citizens themselves, as in the case of Roumania. I view Roumania as a success story as much as any former communist country can be a success story; I think the reason is the country collectively turned the page with Nicolai's and Elena's deaths. We'll see about Iraq. Because Saddam was handed to the Iraqis on a silver platter; his removal from power was done for them. Without the risk, the reward just isn't the same nor so dearly held.