> v.t.
> ... 2. to regard with favor; have a kindly or friendly feeling for 
> (a
> person, group, etc.).
>
> I have to go with Jinx. Even though English is not my native 
> language, I
> pretty easily can follow the train of thought that says that a "high
> opinion of; esteem or respect" not necessarily means "liking" in the 
> more
> emotional sense that this often implies ("friendly feeling"). They 
> seem to
> be, in some sense at least, orthogonal concepts.

> Have you ever known somebody you felt compelled to admire for 
> whatever, but
> who you didn't like? And have you ever known somebody you just 
> liked, just
> like that, without admiring that person?

Whoever:    Read it all before reacting.

Adolph Hitler.
If one takes each of his achievements in isolation and not as a vector 
sum.

I am by no means a supporter of what he did, taken as a whole. Or of 
most of the methods that he used to achieve even the "better" parts of 
what he did. Much of what he sought to do was admirable when taken in 
its own context. Much that he achieved was good. His abilities were 
amazing by most standards. But, when you examine how he achieved what 
he achieved, and when you add all the 'other stuff' the vector sum is 
rather different.

If he had not ascribed or acted on his more extreme views and if he 
had been prepared to go at a slower pace he may still have achieved 
much of what he sought to and been remembered by history as a 
formidable opponent of less than desirable characteristics who made 
Germany great again. But it's just as likely that instead he would 
have been overrun by Stalin in the mid 1940s, and subsequently seen by 
history as the man who failed to act decisively against Stalin when he 
had the chance.

>From the same era, up close Churchill was probably more admirable than 
likeable if you had to work with him. Even Stalin has to be admired 
for what he achieved against Hitler (with a little help from his 
friends ...). Little that Stalin achieved in other contexts appears 
admirable.


        RM

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