The term "exile" is used so loosely that it really depends on the individual and the country who has exiled him/her.
Ferdinand Marcos, for example, was a long-time friend of the US and received quite a bit of medical treatment here during his later years. His government officials funneled quite a bit of money into their own pocketbooks during his medical absences, and he was eventually expelled from the Phillipines and given exile in Hawaii. He was later indicted on embezzlement charges, but died before being convicted. His wife, Imelda, was acquitted on the same charges.
Wikipedia uses this definition:
Exile is a form of punishment. It means to be away from one's home (i.e. city, state or country) while either being explicitly refused permission to return and/or being threatened by prison or death upon return.
It is common to distinguish between internal exile, i.e., forced resettlement within the country of residence, and external exile, deportation outside the country of residence.
One thing the definition doesn't really explain is that often exiled leaders of a country return to power in their country when political conditions become favorable for a return. There inlies the problem with Saddam. The Iraqi people are by and large in worse-off conditions than they were when Saddam was in power. It's easy for many who are willing to follow within his strict dictatorship's rules to long for that time back...when food was more plentiful and many of them had jobs to go to. Many of them fear our military members and don't see that they are any safer now than they were 3 years ago.
It's going to take humanitarian missions from multiple countries many, many years to restore the faith of the Iraqi people in a government that makes their lives better. It's the same lesson the people of the former Soviet republics have battled for the past two decades.
Sorry for the long post. I could go on for hours...
