Krauthammer: Mandela ‘Was Remarkable in Three Ways’

“He’s remarkable in three ways. The first, as Kirsten just indicated, was the stoicism and the courage that he showed as a captive. That makes him incredibly admiral, but not unique. There are other prisoners of war, prisoners of conscious, from John McCain to now [INDECIPHERABLE], who similarly were heroic in their captivity. What makes him unique is that the two things he did was he rose and became a leader. The first is the reconciliation. He preached no hatred for those who were oppressed. And the contrast that one might want to look at is Zimbabwe, which is a country that shows where South Africa could have gone, where the black leaders there who came to power made war on the whites, and destroyed the country. Mandela understood. He took the example of Chile, with the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, where anybody who tells the truth about what happened was given amnesty and nobody ended up in jail. And that was exactly the right answer. And the last thing he did was just utterly remarkable, is after five years in office, he steps down. That’s George Washington. That does not happen often in Africa or anywhere. He never took the power to his head. He never was intoxicated by it. The example he set is extremely unusual and probably the most lasting that he will leave to his country.”