Dynasties

The Palace Of Reason ^ | July 24, 2003 | Francis W. Porretto

[PatD]

The deaths of Qusay and Uday Hussein at the hands of American forces has evoked a hurricane from the Left over the approriateness of the action.

Your Curmudgeon can't see what all the shouting is about. The sons of Saddam Hussein were arguably responsible for more evil than their notorious father. We have well confirmed reports that, between them, they operated kidnap-and-rape squads, torture centers, and facilities where various persons who displeased them were diced with chain saws or fed feet first into shredding machines. One even attempted to assassinate the other, some years back. If anyone deserved to die horribly and ignominiously, it was these two princes of darkness.

Yet the detachment that took their lives first surrounded their location, gave them a chance to surrender, and withheld its fire until it was fired upon. So in a critical sense, the Husseins' deaths were self-elected. Had they surrendered, they would be in the hands of American interrogators as we speak. No doubt the international Left would have launched the very same volley of ICBMs -- Impressively Credentialed Barking Moonbats -- over our not immediately turning them over to neutral supervision. You know, the way we did with the hijackers of the Achille Lauro. One of those was recently recaptured in Iraq, of all places. Imagine that.

So while the Iraqis celebrate the deaths of these two monsters, such notables as the Dishonorable Charles Rangel rants about the illegality of this assassination perpetrated by our military in a combat zone, during an armed conflict. Your Curmudgeon was unaware that assassins announce their presence to their intended targets, and then wait to be fired upon before opening fire themselves. One does live and learn.

But that's all to the side, really. What matters most is that the Hussein dynasty has been truncated. Only the paterfamilias remains. Even if Saddam is never caught, the likely extent of his influence on the future has been radically reduced.

This is more significant than most people realize. Dynastic considerations have been much on the minds of many of history's great monsters. Henry VIII took wife after wife, killing two to be rid of them, in a quest for sons to perpetuate his line. The desire to pass political power to one's progeny appears to be a powerful motivator of the megalomaniac-totalitarian mind.

Steven Den Beste has opined that a continuing dynasty of Husseins was what the Iraqi people feared most. One vicious dictator can be endured, but the prospect of an ongoing line of them kills hope and the will to resist. This could well be true. But it is at least as likely that the old monster himself will slacken in his drive to regain power, now that his sons are no more.

All men are mortal. We cannot but be aware of this. It circumscribes all our ambitions. Unless he's an artist or scientist of unusual stature, or a religious leader bearing an immortal message, a man's hope of influencing the future lies in his children.

Dynasties that command organizations for evil purposes make a stunning contrast with the rare and usually brief dynasties that rise to status through benevolence or trade. America has seen examples of both.

Cosa Nostra crime families, whose fortunes depend on the maintenance and extension of a regional monopoly over the provision of illegal goods, are routinely commanded by a single family line. Only exceptional, inarguable weakness in an heir presumptive would see him removed from the succession. Over the generations, the families that prospered were those where each don was more ruthless than his predecessor. Families whose dons attempted to conciliate their "competitors" usually found themselves cut right out of the business, sometimes by a hail of lead.

Compare the Cosa Nostra experience to that of the Ford Motor Company. Fords have recurred at the top of that huge company, but not in strict sequence; there were intervals during which the Ford family "stood off" and allowed others to captain the enterprise. Even most of its detractors concede that Ford is a model of business propriety, that satisfies its customers and maintains decent, even kindly relations with its employees.

It would be natural for the Ford family, still one of the largest stockholders in the corporation, to prefer one of its own to an "outsider," if all other things were equal. But other things seldom are equal, and in the commercial realm, ability will always count more than blood. When RCA disregarded that dictum and put the egregiously incapable Bobby Sarnoff at its helm as successor to his far more able father, it brought ruin upon itself.

Political dynasties tend toward accelerating corruption and villainy. Prominent commercial dynasties are less common, but when they appear, they tend to conserve the values and conduct that makes a business concern a pleasure to deal with, at least in free societies that possess the curbs of competition and law.

Political power tends to attract the worst men in the world. Apparently, that quality does travel vertically through family lines, whether by direct genetic transmission or through environmental conditioning. Which makes the obvious decency and candor of Jeb and George W. Bush a remarkable thing, but that's a subject for another time.

Contemplate the Left's propensity for defending political dynasties and dynastic aspirants, though not always in obvious fashion. Here in America we have several -- the Kennedys, the Clintons, the Cuomos, the Daleys -- about whom few left-of-center spokesmen will utter a critical word. Surely they would hesitate to endorse absolute hereditary monarchy (a system which has a certain appeal for your Curmudgeon; the fewer persons who can impose laws and taxes, the better, no?). But an unbroken chain of these others appears not to trouble them.

But that couldn't have anything to do with the Left's carping over the deaths of Qusay and Uday Hussein, could it? Well, could it?

[PatD]

Mr. Porretto is not just my former employer. He's also one of my Aikido students. He'd better keep in practice.

[Bahbah]

"Impressively Credentialed Barking Moonbats"

LOL. Fits perfectly.

[Acolyte]

Our Founding Fathers had the foresight to realize the dangers of aristocracy and dynasties. No one has a birth right to a political office - it must be earned. At least it should be.

[Ronin]

That was an interesting read. He might have mentioned the Kim Il Sung, Kim Jong Il, dynastic succession as even more proof of his point, but other than that, he covered it well.

I like his style.

[RJCogburn]

Good essay.

Speaking of dynasties, let's not forget the Bush family.

[conservatism_IS_compassion]

unaware that assassins announce their presence to their intended targets, and then wait to be fired upon before opening fire themselves. One does live and learn.

Oh, yes! It's part of the code, and inviolable. Before an assassin strikes, he must first file written notice with the authorities 5 days in advance, much like wedding bans--and must present himself to the victim unarmed, for a fair fight. This code cannot be broken!

LOL!

[COUNTrecount]

Saddam has one remaining son, a fourteen year old whose mother is his second wife. He has never divorced his first wife ,who is also his first cousin, and mother to the deceased Oday and Qusay.

[Ancesthntr]

Saddam has one remaining son, a fourteen year old whose mother is his second wife. He has never divorced his first wife, who is also his first cousin, and mother to the deceased Oday and Qusay.

Sonny & Michael are dead; that Fredo lives is of little consequence - the Don's empire is done for.