Mass Murderer Rodovan Karadzic Snared By Ego

Radovan Karadzic envisioned himself as a Serb hero; his beautiful Serbian world had been usurped by Albanians. Hitler saw his beautiful Europe stained by Jews who didn't belong. These extremes of human behaviour are but extremes.

What if I were to say:

1. The European has come to my land and has taken it as his own. I must destroy him.
2. The Native American has no right to control this land. It must be colonized by Europeans who know how to use it. Native Americans must be evcuated.
3. India must be Hindi. All Moslims must leave.
4. Tibet is a backward country. It needs to be pushed into the modern world. Tibet can no longer exist as an independent country.
5. Jews must have a homeland of their own. Those who live in Palestine cannot stay if they are hostile to a Jewish homeland. They must be evacuated.
6. Palestian people have lived in Palestine for centuries. It is immoral and wrong to displace them. If that is their intention, Jews must be destroyed and Israel must be destroyed.
7. The world of Islam cannot tolerate the Infidel. Infidels must be fougnt if there is even a perception of opposing Islam.
8. The West cannot accomodate the extremes of Islam. Women cannot wear the burkah.

etc.....

Other than acting out on my beliefs, how am I different from Karadzic? I am not defending him, but simply stating the sad difficulties of being human.

The very ego that drove him to become a mass murderer--in the Nazi mold--is the same ego that allowed him to hide in plain sight as (oh the absolute irony) as a healer. A beard and long hair are really not much of a disguise, after all. Those who knew who he really was kept him safe because they agreed with him. And thus it will always be.

He and his ilk need no further ego-boosts.However it is done, he must be made to disappear from the earth. (And I don't even believe in capital punishment.) As long as he's alive and identifiable, his following will not diminish but will grow. If he is executed, of course he'll become a martyr to his True Believers. But at least his three-dimensional presence on this earth can't serve as a kind of worhshipful icon to those who agree with him. That those in agreement with him will continue to do so--and will do what they can to further his often-stated wishes and actions--must be considered irrelevant. Nazi ideas did not disappear, now have they.But their sheer virulent bloodiness, their very presence, have diminished as time alone must guarantees.

Does it all go away? Of course not. But the central presense of this man serves as catalyst, if not more than that, for the continuation of his actions even if on a smaller scale then when his influence was at its height.

A long jail sentence will not diminish that effect. He has too many friends of all stripes, including those in high places with great (if subtler)influence. They, if no one else, will help keep his notions alive and vivid.

He must be stopped. He personally must be stopped. His words are as gold to his believers.

Eventually the murderous responses will slow down. They might not stop. These people have hated each other for too long for that to happen. But people in general will find themselves shrugging at best, and put down their weapons that lead directly or indirectly to the genocide that he so successfully induced.

After all, there are Jews in Germany now, are there not? Most living apparently normal lives--without forgetting the past. But the past eventually loses its effect. Normalcy takes its place. If it has in Germany, then it is possible everywhere. (Even in Darfur.)

An essay of sorts is emerging here, and I could go on and on.But the gist of my beliefs is clear.A metastizing cancer has to be extirpated before it spreads even farther than it already has.