Originally posted by: sashashyam
Surbhi,
My hands can take no more typing today, but just one point.
Hitler did not shoot himself because he was unhappy. The Allies were closing in on Berlin, and he did not want to be captured alive, that was all. It was a neat escape from trial and execution, like what happened to many of his assistants at the Nuremburg trial.
This said, you are an idealistic and very warm hearted person. That is why I am so fond of you despite the fact that we agree on almost nothing!
But you have to understand that some people are just the way they were. They would not have wanted to be any different either. And every chakravartin samrat in history, in India and abroad, waged war for expanding his empire. That is what the ashwamedha yagna was all about.
Finally, Alexander was not a sadist like Hitler and Stalin and Mao. He did not inflict suffering on others in order to derive pleasure from it. That is what distinguishes him from many other warlords. And he had an innate nobility of temperament that could appreciate the courage and nobility of an opponent like Porus. Which was probably why they developed a relationship of trust and friendship after the battle of the Hydaspes.
Shyamala Di