Butcher of Macedon

"Yet human experience has moral constants across time and space that are common to all cultures and cannot be explained away; by any fair measure, Alexander's inaugural Theban holocaust puts his murder in league with ethnic obliterations of our own era - Adolf Hitler's wartime retaliatory annihilation of occupied communities, Hafez Assad's erasure of wayward Syrian villages or Saddam Hussein's gassing and butchery of Iraqi Kurds - all government-sponsored murder, passed off through propoganda and disinformation as the regrettable but inevitable wages of conflict."
- Butcher of Macedon by Victor Davis Hanson

I sometimes lose sight of that saying that history repeats itself, instead believing that we re-invent history as time goes on. To a point we do, finding new ways to achieve the old results, but the fundamental emotion or idea behind it remains the same. Hatred, sadism, anger - these emotions don't change, they follow us throughout time and never let go and these emotions are the ones that fuel the terror that is inflicted on society. Alexander is portrayed as this incredible man, a brilliant tactition with the ability to conquer the world in the common story but this article counter acts the brilliant mind with the guilty act. He was a cold-blooded killer with no respect for human life or any form of mercy and yet this idea of him as this great leader continues unmarked by his indiscretions. He was the predecessor of Hitler and Hussein and he was probably the pupil of someone else - the vicious cycle continues.