Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader is sure that many of you (since he knows his readers to be the type of “plugged in” and “in-the-know” people who read fine blogs) have noticed the many new articles concerning the former President of Liberia, Charles Taylor. Here is a Yahoo news page with many links for you if you aren’t up to speed on this item.
So, in a nutshell, Charles Taylor led an armed rebellion against the government of Liberia. By the late 1990s Taylor came to control most of the country. A deal was brokered to stop the fighting. An election was held. Taylor became president of Liberia. In 2003, Taylor accepted exile to Nigeria to avoid war crimes charges being pursued against him. Rather suddenly and capriciously, Nigeria decided to turn Taylor over to the war crimes tribunal for trial. Taylor briefly escaped and is now on his way to trial.
Your Maximum Leader’s question to all dictators out there. Why? Why give up power when you have it? Why give up the power that (if you have a checkered past - as dos Charles Taylor) protects you from the international community? Why allow yourself to be talked out of power and into exile on the promise that some other nation will not turn you over to “authorities.” Why? Why? Why?
It is turns like this that make your Maximum Leader wonder why future Taylors (or Pinochet’s in Chile - remember his fight against the Spanish and then his subsequent trial by a later Chilean government?) would ever consider giving up power. If you can’t make a lasting immunity agreement in exchange for giving up power why ever make a deal? Robert Mugabe isn’t ever going to make a deal. Khadaffi isn’t ever going to make a deal. Castro isn’t ever going to make a deal. And as much as it pains your Maximum Leader to say it, at this point he would advise dictators around the world to fight it out to the bitter end… Because one way or another you are going to wind up dead or imprisoned. You might as well go out on your terms as opposed to someone elses…
NB to Readers: Your Maximum Leader started writing this post on Tuesday afternoon. Then he put it aside and forgot about it until this morning. Of course, other bloggers have beaten your Maximum Leader to restating this position - which by the way, he thinks he once heard someone like Henry Kissinger articulate. BTW, Kissinger himself is under threat of indictment in a number of nations for his role in the conduct of the Vietnam War.
Carry on.
