If your boss tells you to work until midnight, but he or she takes off at six each night, would you accept that?

If the captain of your sports team makes the team run 10 rounds around the field while he only does 5? Would the team accept that?

Do you think your kids will respect you when you tell them to get off their iPads, while you play games on the computer yourself?

The answer is no. A good leader leads by giving the right example. And that is exactly what today’s world is void of: good leaders. Leaders that lead with integrity, honesty, honour and humility. Most leaders suck, apart from a few specimens that we hardly ever hear about because they are not busy with self-promotion but working hard to run a country.

Why?

Because they have power. And many people can’t handle power. It makes them corrupt. Especially when they have been in power for a long time.

Power is like a drug. You have some, you want more. You become power hungry. And someone who is power hungry becomes insatiable and if you are never satisfied, you’ll do everything to feed your hunger. It’s exactly like drugs. It makes the addict highly untrustworthy.

And that’s when the real problems begin. The country as it was, is no longer enough. The power-hungry leader wants more. More land, more money, more subjects to reign over. And anyone posing a threat to that, be it on religious, cultural or whatever other grounds, must be marginalized or eliminated.

Although this is very much a simplified rendition, this is basically why many wars start. It is why borders are breached, land is suddenly declared to be in the hands of someone new, and people are forced to speak a different language or to profess to a different religion.

This want for more is the root cause for so many problems in the world. It is the insanity deriving from power hunger that makes world leaders send masses of innocent people to death. Because, with their huge egos and their equally huge insecurities, they do not feel powerful enough, taken seriously, or worshipped sufficiently, and their sorry narcissistic brains can’t cope with that.

So, they start a war, killing thousands (or even millions) of people who trusted them and voted for them.

They may have chosen, in some cases, to defend their country, but that is not quite the same as choosing to go to war. And in many cases, in the past as well as today, many people did not even sign up. They were forced into a uniform and sent to the front.

They gear up, kiss and hug their loved ones one last time and they are off, not knowing if they’ll ever be able to kiss their parents, partners and children ever again.

Meanwhile the very people who declared the war are safely hiding somewhere in a fortified structure that cannot be found, let alone entered. Their country might be in war, they might have to adapt their own daily life a little bit to the changed circumstances, but they are safe. They are not getting hurt. They are not in the line of fire. And they certainly do not have to fear for their lives.

The only thing they fear is another dent in their despicable egos,  a pathetic excuse for characters that no one has any respect for anyway.

So how about this? How about bringing a tiny bit of justice and a pinch of honour back to our world leaders by making them an active part of the war?

You know, like a long time ago. When Alexander the Great was attacking countries and expanding his empire, he wasn’t giving orders from his heavily protected fort. Julius Caesar didn’t win battles by staying safely in his tent. Genghis Kahn didn’t become the greatest conqueror of all time, by hiding in his yurt. They fought.

Do we want battle-loving animals like them to reign over countries? Do we want leaders like a blood-shedding Genghis Kahn? Of course not! I am not saying they were nice people with kind souls. But at least they had some honour. They led their troops by physically leading the way. By joining their men on the battlefield. They had a backbone.

What are we stuck with today? A bunch of power hungry, psychopathic, narcissistic and highly polarizing men that proclaim war from the safety of their palaces and excessive homes as they order thousands of innocent men and women to do their dirty work for them.

We all know that wars have rules. For instance, you do not attack civilians. You treat detainees humanely. You do not torture people. These rules are part of the international humanitarian law. Let’s add one rule to that, shall we?

Let’s make it a rule that a country’s leader who declares a war must lead his troops into that war himself. Physically. Present. On the battle ground. If you're not willing to fight yourself, then don’t declare a war!