Evil Genius or scapegoat?

Radovan Karadzic has been sentenced to 40 years imprisonment for atrocities committed by people responsible to him.

I have two reservations. People who appear before international courts on such charges are usually former leaders of small countries, never the people still in charge of large countries, though it is the latter who orchestrate the most harm.

Second the people who actually kill and torture usually get away with it, claiming that they were taking orders from the token boss who appears in court. I don't  believe in that denial of responsibility. It is the people who use the guns and instruments of torture and really have blood on their hands and uniforms, and often on their penises as well, who have suppressed any feelings of compassion and schooled themselves to ignore the screams and pleas of their victims. The leader just endorses some vague abstraction like 'free the city of *** from alien interlopers'.

Without cruel minions the evil leader could do very little harm, and while there are people willing to follow orders without question, there will always be someone willing to give them orders.

It is those minions we should target.