[Destro]

"My opinion then is that the present time, above all others, is inopportune for flight, even though it bring safety. . . . For one who has been an emperor it is unendurable to be a fugitive. May I never be separated from this purple, and may I not live that day on which those who meet me shall not address me as mistress. If, now, it is your wish to save yourself, O Emperor, there is no difficulty. For we have much money, and there is the sea, here the boats. However consider whether it will not come about after you have been saved that you would gladly exchange that safety for death. For as for myself, I approve a certain ancient saying that royalty is a good burial-shroud." Empress Theodora to Emperor Justinian during the Nika revolt of 532 A.D.

Let us hope Saddam has no classical education.

[FBD]

"Let us hope Saddam has no classical education."

Saddam is a Cretin. One of his scientists,( Dr. Hamza ) wrote in "Saddam's Bombmaker" that Saddam once walked into his laboratory, and on the wall were pictures of famous scientists, including a very large Albert Einstein.
Who are these people? He demanded to know.

He is merely a brutal dictator with fairly keen survival instincts.

[happygrl]

Shame on you for even THINKING of comparing Empress Theodora to Saddam !

No way, Jose, not in the same breath.

What she said bespeaks a true leader, not a tyrant.

She had class.