Comment of the Day

gedenkenbrauchtwissen replied to your quote: Everybody who knows me knows I am not an autocrat…

Can’t believe he said he should be “rewarded for all the good things I have done.” Yeesh.

Radovan Karadzic’s comments are actually just the latest link in a very long chain, going back at least as far as Socrates, in which the accused suggests that, instead of punishment, he ought to be lavishly rewarded:

What, then, does such a man as I deserve?  Some good thing, men of Athens, if I must propose something truly in accordance with my deserts; and the good thing should be such as is fitting for me. Now what is fitting for a poor man who is your benefactor, and who needs leisure to exhort you? There is nothing, men of Athens, so fitting as that such a man be given his meals in the prytaneum. That is much more appropriate for me than for any of you who has won a race at the Olympic games with a pair of horses or a four-in-hand. For he makes you seem to be happy, whereas I make you happy in reality; and he is not at all in need of sustenance, but I am needy. So if I must propose a penalty in accordance with my deserts, I propose maintenance in the prytaneum. (Apology, 36c-37a)

The primary distinction, of course, is that Socrates’ jurors later felt remorse for convicting and sentencing him to death. It’s unlikely that anyone will feel any remorse when Karadzic is finally convicted of genocide and spends the rest of his life in prison.