Who is your favorite dictator?

[Savage]

.

Who is your favorite dictator?


And why?


This is a multi option poll, so you can vote one more than one.

[Savage]

I voted Hitler, Mussolini, Mao, Castro, Gadaffi and Khomeni.

Hitler, a great artist who knew how to paint with the world as his canvas.

Mussolini, he knew when enough was enough, and walked faster than anyone else. I like his dynamic effectivity, and also that he made the trains run precise.

Mao, a decent leader for a great and difficult task. I like that he sendt the intellectuals out in the countryside for honest labor. One of the absolute greatest leaders in modern times. A sphinx.

Castro, a good leader for his people, one of the greatest. He transformed Cuba from a banananarepublic to a well function society, and have withstand numberless attempts from CIA to kill him or destabilize the cuban regime.

Gadaffi is a great and brave leader of a small nation. If he were the leader of a greater nation, he could rock the earth duly. Gadaffi has been a good and uncorrupt leader for his people. He has also his own modernized and reformed version of Islam.

Khomeini were more like a tool, but he served as an useful tool. Under his religious and fanatic dictature, Iran were transformed from a bananarepublic to a medieval hell on earth. But holy, of course... I remember the TV pics from his funeral...the mass of people pressed so hard on, that the body fell out of the chest, and the believers tore it to pieces to ensure themselves relics...

[Wat Tyler]

I voted for Hitler.
The western propaganda aside,i think the man was genuine and passionate.

[Jacob Le Bin]

Our beloved Benito Mussolini!!! I think my avatar speaks for itself. Under the Fascist regime,splendid architecture flourished all over Italy.The regime literally constructed the country.

[Kernunnos]

Each one has committed great errors.

First of all, all the marxist ones destroyed creativity and working economies, often going into absurd nightmares like Pol Pot, who wanted to eliminate everybody who wasn't a farmer.

As of Hitler, he didn't accept advice from serious people whi might have given him victory in WW2, starting from Von Braun, whose idea of building rockets he kept frozen for three years because of contrary advice received in a dream (Luigi Romersa, italian secret agent in charge of collecting infos on german secret weapons and Von Braun's friend).

This very episode is illuminating, Hitler's method was precisely based on "intuitions" and the refusal of listening to competent advice.

[Carnyx]

African dictators surely know what being a dictator means.

Mobutu




Bokassa I

[Marcus Marulus]

Francisco Franco - saved his country from Communist hell

Fidel Castro - liberated his country from the Yankee yoke, from being just a gigantic whorehouse of the American middle-aged perverts and homosexuals

Juan Peron - stood up against US imperialist aggression and its domestic stooges; was at the same time against communism

Ayatollah Khomeini - shook off the burden of Yankee imperialism, restored the spiritual traditions of his people and incorporated them into modern politics, deviated his country's course towards the (degenerate and worthless) "civilizational" values of the modern West

Salazar - saved his republic from slipping into Communist-Jacobinist hell

General Suharto - see under Franco and Salazar

[Theobald]

Jose Antonio Primo de Rivera, though he was not a dictator but the leader of a political movement, because I really admire the man, his fight, his life and his death as a hero. Also, Falangism is a major influence in my political ideas.


Saddam Hussein (before 1991) - Probably the greatest modern leader the Arab world has known, before 1991 of course. A progressive and effective politician, who since the late 1960s took a leading role in addressing Iraqi major domestic problems, after having strengthened and unified the Baath party, focused on attaining stability through authoritarianism and the improvement of living standards, actively fostered the modernization of the Iraqi economy, created a welfare system, almost eradicated illiteracy, established universal free schooling up to the highest levels, granted free hospitalization to everyone. He created the most modernized public-health system in the Middle-East and provided unprecedented social services in this region. He implemented a national infrastructure campaign (building roads, developin industries, ...), brought electricity everywhere, modernized the countryside through mechanizing agriculture and distributing land, nationalized foreign oil interests, ...

He was also a secular leader, a modernizer who gave women added freedoms and offered them high-level jobs, created an European-style legal system and abolished the Sharia.
He also created a powerful intelligence service, as well as the best army in the Middle-East.

His policy of "carrot and stick" made him the most widely supported and popular leader in the Middle East, and he made Iraq the most powerful and wealthy country in the region.

Oh, and I was about to forget, he was a friend of French and European nationalists, and an enemy of our worst enemies, Anglo-America and islamists.


Benito Mussolini (between 1922 and 1940) - I don't admire the man, who was quite a buffoon, but find his regime and policies very interesting nonetheless, especially the modernization of Italy.
However after 1940 and his ridiculous entry into the war, he stopped being an independent leader to become a mere and pathetic lackey of Hitler.

[Blood Axis]

Mynydd

[Aptrgangr]

All listed dictators are vermin. Without exception.

[Yago]

Originally Posted by Theobald

Jose Antonio Primo de Rivera, though he was not a dictator but the leader of a political movement, because I really admire the man, his fight, his life and his death as a hero. Also, Falangism is a major influence in my political ideas.

I suppose that he meant his father, D. Miguel Primo de Rivera.

Originally Posted by Blood Axis

Mynydd

Benevolent dictators are the most popular.

Dictatorships are regimes which in Europe they should serve short to medium term to solve the mess left by democracies, not to be perpetuated.

Mussolini, for example, understood this even if late (RSI).

[Theobald]

Originally Posted by Aptrgangr

All listed dictators are vermin. Without exception.

Care to explain ? If I share your feelings about leaders such as Stalin, Hitler, Mao or Pol Pot, saying that Franco, Juan Peron or Salazar were "vermin" is quite an overstatement in my opinion.

[Theobald]

Originally Posted by Mynydd

I suppose that he meant his father, D. Miguel Primo de Rivera.

I don't know much about his regime, apart from the fact that it was - apparently - a kind of social nationalism. What do you think about it from a nationalist point of view, Mynydd ?

Originally Posted by Mynydd

Dictatorships are regimes which in Europe they should serve short to medium term to solve the mess left by democracies, not to be perpetuated.

Well, watching the increasing decadence of Europe on a daily basis I have come to think that cesarism is the only possible way to lead our countries - well, at least mine.

[Aptrgangr]

Originally Posted by Theobald

Care to explain ? If I share your feelings about leaders such as Stalin, Hitler, Mao or Pol Pot, saying that Franco, Juan Peron or Salazar were "vermin" is quite an overstatement in my opinion.

First of all, all liberal democracies are dictatorships, today's elections are nothing but ballot card fetishism and have nothing to do with following the peoples' political wishes. So there is no reason not to list Bush, Putin or Merkel in this poll.

To Franco, what he did he did not because he loved his folk, but because he loved to be in charge. He was an imperilast who had no problems with occupying Morocco etc. Under his rule, national, especially regional heritage was outlawed; he was not interested in national and folkish heritage except some kind of national-catholic heritage.

To Peron, according to himself he was opposed to capitalism and communism, but his so called 3rd position politics resulted in an economic catastrophy, his "economic policy" vastly ruined Argentinia; and since he fought the catholic church, outlawed catholic newspapers and legalized prostitution, he soon became the favourite of the lefties.

To Salazar, taking from the poor and give to the rich is a policy is always oppose, he also was an imperialist who even collaborated with the Anglo-American forces by granting them bases on his soil during WW2. I can not see what's positive with that, he just was another hypocrit. He also did not pursue any kind of folkish policy but imerialism.

To your beloved pre-'91 Saddam Hussein, he was a massmurderer and warmonger and surely not a friend of European nationalists, adhering such creatures does not show nationalism in a favourable light.

[Marcus Marulus]

Originally Posted by Aptrgangr

All listed dictators are vermin. Without exception.

When I listed my "favourite" dictators, I didn't want to say they were good and wonderful, but that they did some good things, while other things they did could be justification for labelling them with the word you used.

Anyway, I didn't take this thread and poll too seriously from the very beginning, taking into consideration the username of the one who started it in the first place.

Originally Posted by Aptrgangr

First of all, all liberal democracies are dictatorships, today's elections are nothing but ballot card fetishism and have nothing to do with following the peoples' political wishes. So there is no reason not to list Bush, Putin or Merkel in this poll.

Correct. These are, unlike Mynydd, malevolent dictators.

Putin is the most honest of the three, because he at least doesn't babbble incessantly about democracy, freedom, values etc.

Originally Posted by Aptrgangr

He was an imperialist who had no problems with occupying Morocco etc.

Northern Morocco (Protectorate of Tetouan) had become Spain's protectorate in 1912, long before Franco's accession to power and it was Franco who gave up its occupation in 1956.

Originally Posted by Aptrgangr

To Peron, according to himself he was opposed to capitalism and communism, but his so called 3rd position politics resulted in an economic catastrophy, his "economic policy" vastly ruined Argentinia;

It is debatable whether Argentine's economics was ruined by Peron's policy or by the intrigues of foreign powers.

Originally Posted by Aptrgangr

and since he fought the catholic church, outlawed catholic newspapers and legalized prostitution, he soon became the favourite of the lefties.

And Peronism split into many factions, some right-wing, others left-wing, monteneros etc.

Originally Posted by Aptrgangr

To Salazar, taking from the poor and give to the rich is a policy is always oppose, he also was an imperialist who even collaborated with the Anglo-American forces by granting them bases on his soil during WW2. I can not see what's positive with that, he just was another hypocrit. He also did not pursue any kind of folkish policy but imperialism.

Yes, the Angola and Mozambique wars that drained Portugal's national resources.

[Mediterraneo]

Originally Posted by Theobald

I don't know much about his regime, apart from the fact that it was - apparently - a kind of social nationalism. What do you think about it from a nationalist point of view, Mynydd ?

He only wanted to occult the disaster of Annual and the "Expediente Picasso" that was the reason of his "coup d'etat" and the later support of the King Alfonso XIII.

Another military dictatorship in Spain, 100% political corruption, 0% Nationalism.

[Breogan]

Originally Posted by Mynydd

...
Dictatorships are regimes which in Europe they should serve short to medium term to solve the mess left by democracies, not to be perpetuated.
...

Yep, this is the classic definition of dictator: provisional ruler in a disastrous and exceptional situation. I only could like these dictators.
Many thought of this about Franco during the war; but he never left the power finally.

[Chauntecleer]

I remember reading that Idi Amin sent a 'get well soon' card to Clinton during the Lewinsky scandal. He had that sense of humour at least, something whixh can't be said for most of the others on the list. Therefore, he gets my vote.

[Crvena zvezda]

I agree with Throbold regarding Mussolini;

Benito Mussolini (between 1922 and 1940) - I don't admire the man, who was quite a buffoon, but find his regime and policies very interesting nonetheless, especially the modernization of Italy.

However after 1940 and his ridiculous entry into the war, he stopped being an independent leader to become a mere and pathetic lackey of Hitler.

I also like the fact that he was able to get rid off the mob. Something no Italian government has been able to achieve since then.

Fidel Castro. The fact that of all revolutionaries of the cold war he is the only one in power. The fact that he has opposed America, a superpower so close to his beloved Cuba for over 40 years. The fact that despite the embargo and U.S. blockade of Cuba his countryh is walthier and most people have better education and healthcare then most of the smaller latin american countries that were U.S. stooges. The fact that Cuba is one of the few countries unspoileby U.S. dominated consumerism. He liberated his country from the being a huge whorehouse for Americans.

Tito. Brought peace and prosperity to ex-Yugoslavia for a while, and creator of "market socialism" and of course non-allignemnt. However i do not like some of his decisions, the cration of new nations, massive loans he took out for Yugoslavia, how decentralized the state was, how he caused more problems by not letting truth about WWII be known was making irredentism possible after his death and his refusal to put more of the market in his socialist vision.

Pinochet. Transformed his country from one of the poorest in South America to the richest and most successful.

Idi Amin. Huge buffoon, more of a joke, who claimed to be a king of Scotlan and once gave himself the title of "Conquerer of the Biritsh Empire."

Ho Chi Minh. A man who engineered the loss of the vietnam war by America.

Saddam Hussein. An ally of Serbia in the 90s. A man who shows the big trouble of U.s. policy, it creates it's own enemies. He must be a good leader if under him Iraqi's weren't killing themselves. Although, post-Gulf War he was a madmen who provoked America when it was clear he should have seeked rappraochment like Quadhaffi did for the worsrt came for his nation. Also, my dad met him in the 1980s when he worked their for a Yugoslav company.

Muammar gadaffi. An ally of Serbia in the 90s, even after the 90s since Serbia has an arrangement in which we give his desert nation food for cheap oil. I do not like his support of terrorism, but i like how prrior to the late 90s he was a big anti-American force. Largely a Scgizophrenic buffoon. I do like some of his ideas regarding the economy (however, as a realist I view them as impossible) and government (direct democracy, people's rule and no political parties). Also, my dad met him in the 1980s when he worked their for a Yugoslav company.

Juan Peron - held a third way view, opposing both communism and capitalism. also opposed US imperialisrtm in Argentina. Also, one of many revoluitionaries from Argentina, since they've had Che Guievera and Maradona.

Salazar - I've heard the Portuguese speak of him in good words alot.

[Gavril]

Pinochet only rose to power because he had Kissinger and CIA's support.

"The issues are much too important for the Chilean voters to be left to decide for themselves." — Henry Kissinger