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You’re Under the Gun So You Take It on the Run - What is It with War Criminals?
By Marc | July 23, 2008
Okay, so, imagine you’re some big and mighty political leader or maybe a military officer. Then let’s say you want to commit some crimes against humanity, try your hand at genocide, pretend the Geneva Convention doesn’t exist, or anything else that comes to your warped little mind. You’re pretty brave and stuff, because you think nobody can touch you. What’s a person to do when he’s left to his own darkest imagination?
Then, at some point, your bloody little house of cards falls apart. Now someone wants you to answer for all that evil crap you pulled off. You know you’re guilty. They know you’re guilty. Do you stay and face the music or do you run?
This week, Rodovan Karadzic, the former Bosnian Serb leader and flunky of Slobodan Milosevic, was arrested after being in hiding for over ten years. Sure, he changed his name and grew a beard and started wearing glasses, but he was still pretty ballsy about it: he was pretty public as an “expert in human quantum energy” and walked around town like he didn’t have a care in the world.
And it’s not just him. Saddam Hussein, Josef Mengele, Heinz Barth, Richard Baer, and others have run like cowards and tried to hide from justice when the jig was up. Some of ‘em are still running: people like Ratko Mladic and Osama bin Laden.
Maybe it’s just something I don’t understand about war criminals. Maybe it’s also something I don’t understand about human nature. If you’re guilty, why not face up to it? Okay, I guess some people are kind of cowardly and concerned with self-preservation.
But if you can have such disregard for human life and dignity, why run when your own safety is at risk? It doesn’t make sense.
I guess on the other hand, there are people who have sacrificed themselves for the safety of another.
Look at United Flight 93 on September 11, 2001 to name an example. Look at the many instances of soldiers forgetting their own safety in order to protect their fellow men or even civilians. Look at the Secret Service agents who would dive in front of a bullet to save the President. Look at the Christians in Islamic and Communist countries who would face torture and death rather than deny Christ. Look to Christ himself.
If these examples are selfless, then the opposite (destroying then hiding) would be considered selfish.
I know the answer to my previous question. I know why monsters run when the villagers light their torches. I know what makes men sick and cowardly. I understand it, but I just don’t get it.
Topics: In the News |
