The two biggest global newsmakers of the past week were undoubtedly Slobodan Milosevic, the disgraced former Serbian leader, and Barry Bonds, the disgraced current slugger for the San Francisco Giants.

One of them passed away last week. The other is under such intense scrutiny, he probably wishes he’d met the same fate.

Shame, Barry, shame.

One of them spent the final years of his life rotting away in a jail cell. The other has somehow avoided that predicament, despite a mountain of evidence that virtually proves his criminal guilt.

Guilt.

One of them left this earthly realm before he could be brought to justice. The other is currently sunning himself in Scottsdale, Arizona; dressing up in women’s clothes when he’s not hitting baseballs with his tanned, toned, bloated muscular frame. Justice is there for the taking, yet nobody seems to want to grab it.

Both Milosevic and Bonds have their loyal defenders. But as the years wear on, those pools of support have become increasingly shallower as it has become increasingly difficult to stick up for these aggressive, boorish personalities. Milosevic and his supporters claim he was the UN’s pariah, a scapegoat for radicalism despite larger and more serious human rights abuses taking place in other parts of the world. Bonds and his supporters claim he was MLB’s pariah, a scapegoat for the growing drug problems in sport despite Jose Canseco and Ken Caminiti’s assurances that the problem had grown far beyond Bonds’ sphere of influence. Those arguments might have held water during the Clinton years, but this is 2006 and that line of reasoning has been rapidly growing thin. The world is tired of all the complaints. We want something to be done.

The real issue here is simply a matter of intent. Milosevic and Bonds allegedly committed horrible crimes. Both were convicted in the court of public opinion before a judge could conclusively distinguish the facts from the myths. The difference is this: we may not agree with many of Milosevic’s policies, but in his heart of hearts, he thought ethnic cleansing was the best thing for his country. But from the minute Barry Bonds first plunged a needle into his flaccid muscle tissue, he knew that taking steroids was the wrong thing to do.

Where do we proceed from here? Milosevic has now become a martyr for his legions of Serbian extremists, but his support base has stopped short of a full-blown celebration of his deeds. Bonds’ fans have shown no such humility. The Giants plan to honor Bonds once he passes Babe Ruth on the all-time home run list, effectively celebrating and condoning his cowardly acts of sports fraud.

For these reasons among many, Milosevic’s loyal minions have mourned his premature death. When the time comes, will anyone do the same for Barry Bonds?