Who is the worst leader of a major country or national group? This is pretty subjective so I’ll narrow down the pool. The country or national group must be significant on a global scale. So, wheras Equatorial Guinea might not be considered significant, Israel/Palestine would be.
So, who is it? I personally think it would be Ariel Sharon. He is pursuing a rather radical agenda, in one of the most tumultous regions of the world. He has not made his people any safer and has only furthered the economic angst of the Palestinians–the recipe for a major uprising.
I’d also have to say that Vladimir Putin has always aroused my suspicion. True, he played a major role in stabilizing Russia post-Communism. However, he seems to have the air and authority of an absolute dictator. And why not? The Russian people don’t have the best choice right now. Communism was horrible and Yeltsin created chaos. Putin brought stability and has reaped tremendous authority from it. Besides that, his political opponents tend to die in helicopter crashes.
The Pakistani leader who let his country play nuclear weapons Tupperware party. I’m sure all the major nuclear powers have a reserve of warheads with a Pakistani destination by now, just in case. If anyone uses nukes and it’s traced to Pakistan, there’ll be hell to pay, and the Pakistani people will pay it. Not that they’d mind. They apparently have the leaders they deserve – a shame for all of us.
That’d be Gen. Pervez Musharraf, Captor. I think Kim Jong Il is responsible for far more deaths, though (what with the famines and everything), also has nukes and is probably about as likely to give them to terrorists in my opinion. He’s obviously not a Muslim fanatic, but I think he’d do anything for the money and wouldn’t mind at all if the weapons are used against the West.
Can there be any doubt that it’s Kim Jong Il? His country is starving, it’s a pariah in the world isolated with sanctions, and he’s on a collision course with the most powerful country the world has ever seen. This is not a smart man.
Phew. I’m kinda glad you narrowed it down, Mambo; my first thought was, isn’t that kind of like asking “Who’s the tallest short person?”? I mean, by the time you’re a WORLD LEADER, you’re PROBLY not livin in your mom’s basement. Without your qualification, I’d qualify for worst world leader, because I’m no world leader at all.
Anyway, nother vote for KJI. GWB as his running mate, of course.
Mugabe (though I thought of him too) has had little real impact on anyone else, whereas Sharon, Musharraf (sp?) and Kim Jong-il have impacted other nations significantly. Who has the highest death count? Well, if famine due to mismanagement counts then probably KJI, but the exact number of deaths is in dispute (some linkshere). Who has the most likely chance of going crazy and attacking someone? Probably KJI again. Sharon definitely deserves mention for being so freakishly stubborn, but I really think Yasser Arafat is the worse of the two. He has deliberately stalled or disrupted the peace process many times (not that Sharon is any angel either).
As for Pakistan’s nuclear woes, I can’t remember specifics, but did Musharraf inheret that problem or did it all happen under his watch?
An honourable mention should go to Thabo Mbeki for at first buying into the AIDS denial logic while millions of his people became infected and died, and now being slow and inefficient in bringing ARTs to his people.
He can hardly be blamed for all that; the Islamists run a lot in Pakistan, and the nuclear program is a part. Besides, he’s Pakistan’s most progressive leader, he’s turned the economy around, he’s restored a lot of public faith in government after the corruption scandals of the eighties and nineties, and most importantly he’s contributed greatly to the Indo-Pak detente.
I say Putin. By putting the legal crunch (ie. arresting) the most likely leaders of the opposition, he’s pretty much killed off any chance of Russian democracy becoming what it should.
Lil Kim is probably the nuttiest of all. He’s probably the most immediately dangerous. But Sharon and Putin are cold and calculating and not nearly as isolated as Kim. Kim holds a single, albeit terrifying, card. Sharon and Putin though, through their nations’ influence, have myriad ways to mess up the world.
Furt, I’m surprised nobody has mentioned “the name” too, since I was going to mention “the name” in my OP
I’d like to defend Musharaff. I think that Pakistan is one of those countries where American-style democracy would only lead to Islamist radicals winning control of the government. Though Muisharaff seized power and is undisputedly a dictator, he has been a force of good for that country. And the poor guy has to walk a very fine line–Draw a hard line on terrorismm to appease the US while appeasing the anti-US terrorists in his home country. He inherited so many problems. I can imagine a much, much worse Indo-Pakistani conflict without Musharaff in charge.
Actually, I’m curious as to what criteria we’re using to judge “the worst.” If we’re talking about number of people suffering in his own country, then it’s Kim. If we’re talking about decreasing stability/peace in his region of the world, then probably Musharaff (though I’m not clear how much of a hand he had personally in the dispensing of nuclear secrets). If we’re talking about general-purpose immoral behavior and no-goodnik behavior, then “the name” would qualify (it’s hard to get more immoral than lying about WMDs to start a war).
I’ll bite. I’d have to offer up GWB for the nomination. Immediately after 9/11 the U.S. had the entire world’s sympathy. We got condolences from every corner of the globe, christian and muslim alike. Nations were clamoring to help out in the war on terror. Pakistan one of the biggest sponsors of terrorism with it’s major hardline influence, even signed up.
Jump to now. Most of the world hates the U.S. We displayed such arrogance and deception. Culmanating in invading a soverign country, and creating a terrorist haven in Iraq. All our ‘intelligence’ proves to be misleading, if not all out lies. We are no longer trusted in the world community. If we actually try and do something for pure humanitarian reasons it will be questioned and doubted.
Add to the above: Supporting multiple coups to overthrow democratically elected governments; rolling back civil liberties 30 years; rolling back restrictions on governemntal intrusion 30 years; rolling back environmental policies 20 years; ignoring internal reports about our policies leading to the destruction of civilization; denial of rights to American citizens; the round-up and incarceration of foreigners akin to Japanese internment; and possibly amending the constitution to deny rights.
And that’s just what’s made it out into mainstream press! The next topics are currently banished to the tin-foil-hat crowd - but we only have to wait 40-50 years for the documents to be declassified (ala Pearl harbor) and we’ll know the truth. With the continuing stonewalling and opposition to the 9/11 investigations, the evidence builds that the government had a hand in, if not only allowed, the attacks to take place. Lots of blacked out pages in the previous report (about Direct Foreign Government involement) and I’m sure lots more in the next report. I don’t want to start a debate about 9/11 theories/etc, but I want to add it to the large list of ‘yet to be determined’ crimes. Also add Enron connections with Cheney’s ‘Energy Task Force’; the death of a woman accusing GW of rape; the Skull & Bones/NWO connections; and IMHO you get a pretty clear winner in this race.
Facinating. Kim Jong Il has literally starved millions of his citizens to death and you can sit there and say that Bush is the clear winner. That really says something about you, akrako1…and its not good.
Obviously my choice is Kim Jong Il…the man is a monster IMO and it would be hard to top his mismanagement and cruelty in governing a nation state.
And when it happens it’ll be only 8 years after we get over finding out that Clinton murdered Vince Foster and sold military secrets to the Chinese. :rolleyes:
I’d have to agree on KJI with Mugabe as #2, but I think the bastards running Burma deserve some sort of dishonorable mention.
I think you CAN blame him. You make it sound that just because Pakistan is an Islamic country, he had no choice but to spread nuclear tech. I don’t buy it. I’ll grant you he’s MUCH better than a lot of the idiot goofballs cited in this thread, but the fact is that he mad a HUGE mistake that could really fuck up the whole world. Most of the rest are not likely to fuck up much more than their own countries.
While KJI clearly tops Musharraf on the nuttiness scale, we don’t have evidence yet that he’s done as much to disseminate nuke tech to the irresponsible as Musharraf has.
How the mighty have fallen! Nobody has even mentioned Fidel Castro yet! Fifteen or twenty years ago (assuming the SDMB had existed back then), he would have been one of the first names mentioned! If he lurks on this board, he must be really disappointed! There, there, Fidel, you haven’t been forgotten; Bush still gave you a place in the Axis of Evil. (Didn’t he? I think he did, but tt’s been more than two years since that speech . . .)
I think it’s significant that the Zapatista rebels in Chiapas, Mexico, don’t even call themselves Communists. Time was when they inevitably would have; but the name has lost its power to conjure.
