In the post-WWII era, the communists had nowhere near a monopoly, nor even the front-running positions, in “this sort of intrigue”. The fact that most of the world money and power supported the opposition to the communists virtually guaranteed well-fed opposition that needed to be resisted.
Clearly the head dude of IS / ISIL / ISIS / whatever they call themselves this week qualifies.
I was under the impression that the execution by anti-aircraft gun event has been pretty thoroughly debunked as mere over-reaction by SK intel to unconfirmed rumors leaking over from NK. The executee is indeed good and dead, not just resting. But he was shot the conventional way. Or did I get that garbled?
Boko Haram too. Hard to say which group is more insane.
Since opinions on this will differ, let’s move this to IMHO.
Colibri
General Questions Moderator
To even believe such an absurd comparison might be valid, you would have to know next to nothing about either Idi Amin or Canada.
I don’t believe Harper has ever been accused of cannibalism. (Ford, maybe.)
My understanding is that this isn’t systemic (that’d be the camps, for instance) but personal (he closed his eyes!), and a ramping up by Supreme Leader.
Not heard that. Him having his ex-girlfriend machine-gunned was debunked, I know that.
UK PM David Cameron regularly eats live human babies as part of a satanic ritual…
…probably.
I suspect that most of the more over-the-top eeeeeevil claims are simply made up by South Korean intelligence.
For the insane category, how about that guy from Turkmenistan? Saparmurat Niyazov was his name. Google some of the stuff he did.
Hugo Chavez deserves a shout-out. He’s dead, of course, but his successor Nicolas Maduro, also seems determined to make the list. Maybe they’re not quite up to North Korean standards of brutality, but they’ve certain ruined Venezuela very thoroughly.
Saddam Hussein apparently was up close and personal with some of his torture and killing, or at least nearly so. His two sons clearly were.
That’s not Idi Amin, however. More like the Three Stooges.
Donald Trump.
People have been talking about what an utter bastard Leopold II was for well over a hundred years. Mark Twain wrote about it at some length.
As for the questiom, I would agree that North Korea, ISIS/ISIL/IS/Daesh, and Boko Haram all fit the bill. It is true that they aren’t as “personalized” as Idi Amin, where everyone knew his name and could probably pick him out of a line-up and I guess he basically was Uganda when he was in power in the popular perception. By contrast most Americans would probably still have to Google Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi or Abubakar Shekau (although Shekau does have the crazy stare thing going on), and as already noted Kim Jong-un was born into the third generation of the craziness and brutality that is the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.
“If I’m elected President, my death camps will be huuuge! But classy, you know?”
Ah Leopold II.
I’d forgotten about him but you are right - an utter arse. He was a genocidal cruel tyrant who killed millions of people in the Belgian Congo from afar. In the pursuit of gold, diamonds, ivory and much more. This criminal colonial destruction of the second largest country in Africa is largely unknown even though it only ceased in 1960.
And then things got really bad…
Incidentally, and of historical interest, the famous Stanley who found Dr Livingston in the heart of the Congo was an agent of King Leopold II. And a ghastly colonialist himself.
It is in this period that Joseph Conrad wrote “Heart of Darkness” after venturing up the Congo to witness the Belgian rape of this nation. Later immortalized in Apocalypse Now.
Given that the original question asked about the last 20 years or so, how does Leopold II even come into the equation? For that matter Idi Amin has been gone (from power) for close enough to 30 years.
He did ignore several of her text messages, later claiming he hadn’t received them.:mad: