Spring Break
Letter to the editor
Issue date: 2/23/07 Section: Opinion
Editor's note: The following letter is in response to "The eight worst leaders of all-time" by K.C. Vetter, which appeared in the Feb. 16 issue of the WC.
As a history major, I feel that it is my duty to object to the claims made in Ms. Vetter's article. While she does bring up the almost-cliché facts we all know about the dictators listed, there remains a glaring omission.
What constitutes a good leader? As apparent in the article, this question was based on how many atrocious acts that leader committed. If this is the case, all the leaders mentioned well deserve to be on the list.
A wider view must be taken with history if one is to determine this question's answer. Joseph Stalin did rebuild his country into a superpower, only to be rivaled by the U.S. At the time of the Russian Revolution, it was a backwards country still stuck in the days of feudalism. At Stalin's death, the USSR was the second most powerful nation in the world. Hitler rebuilt Germany to its past days of glory.
Students seem to forget that for however terrible Hitler was, he was elected by entirely legal means. I'm sure that if you were a starving peasant, you would elect someone that would promise you change.
Yes, we have all been taught about how the aforementioned leaders killed millions of their own people. We all know that Hitler was a bad man, about the Holocaust, and so on and on. This brings us to Bush.
Worst leader of all-time? This is a severe overstatement to be sure. I can think of several more incompetent U.S. presidents from history. Contemporary opinions of our generation are formed based on what we know. Of course students my age would say Bush is the worst President of all time, simply because we can only remember as far back as Bush Senior's presidency. Without any frame of reference to other leaders, we just assume that Bush is the worst.
I urge students to not look just look at the present, but the past, before making sweeping generalizations about who is deemed "good" or not. As for Bush, time will just have to tell what caliber leader he becomes.
- Adam Bednar
As a history major, I feel that it is my duty to object to the claims made in Ms. Vetter's article. While she does bring up the almost-cliché facts we all know about the dictators listed, there remains a glaring omission.
What constitutes a good leader? As apparent in the article, this question was based on how many atrocious acts that leader committed. If this is the case, all the leaders mentioned well deserve to be on the list.
A wider view must be taken with history if one is to determine this question's answer. Joseph Stalin did rebuild his country into a superpower, only to be rivaled by the U.S. At the time of the Russian Revolution, it was a backwards country still stuck in the days of feudalism. At Stalin's death, the USSR was the second most powerful nation in the world. Hitler rebuilt Germany to its past days of glory.
Students seem to forget that for however terrible Hitler was, he was elected by entirely legal means. I'm sure that if you were a starving peasant, you would elect someone that would promise you change.
Yes, we have all been taught about how the aforementioned leaders killed millions of their own people. We all know that Hitler was a bad man, about the Holocaust, and so on and on. This brings us to Bush.
Worst leader of all-time? This is a severe overstatement to be sure. I can think of several more incompetent U.S. presidents from history. Contemporary opinions of our generation are formed based on what we know. Of course students my age would say Bush is the worst President of all time, simply because we can only remember as far back as Bush Senior's presidency. Without any frame of reference to other leaders, we just assume that Bush is the worst.
I urge students to not look just look at the present, but the past, before making sweeping generalizations about who is deemed "good" or not. As for Bush, time will just have to tell what caliber leader he becomes.
- Adam Bednar
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