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Old April 8, 2012, 10:52 AM   #54
Murdock
Senior Member
 
Join Date: March 4, 2008
Location: Down East Maine
Posts: 431
TRW: Come home safe, brother.

We render aid to our military enemies for two reasons.

First, there is some evidence that an enemy is less likely to continue to resist when he has the idea that we are "merciful." Throw down your rifle and we won't kill you. Probably. It's good policy to be nice to those we are killing, even if it's not always very successful.

Which leads to the second reason. It is not in our core nature to slay our own species, despite the pap voiced by those who repeat the old saw that only men and rats will kill their own kind. When the transitional psychotic experience of war ends, it is important for our warriors to return to civilization and their homes and families as human beings who are not ashamed of what they have done in the name of our country. Showing mercy to a military enemy -- when appropriate -- facilitates this transition. We can be warriors who must kill without being killers. Mostly. Hopefully.

In WWII Europe and North Africa, there were documented cases of medics of either side risking their lives to render aid to the enemy's wounded on the battlefield. Actions like this make an eventual transition to peace thinkable, which can invite the losing side in war to give up sooner. The Japanese on the other hand fought a war of no quarter in the Pacific, and received one in kind. There was a much wider racial and cultural gap between the Japanese and the Americans than between Americans and Germans or Italians. Thirty percent of the US Army fighting in Europe was of German extraction to some degree.

Afghanistan? My only Afghani friend told me -- long before 9/11-- that the reason he immigrated to America is that we can disagree about stuff here without somebody pulling a Kalashnikov. Afghanistan has always has been very violent culture. We can't change it, but we can -- and have -- stopped them from exporting religious murder to the rest of the world. For now anyway.

A sociopathic, home-invading felon lying on my floor bleeding out? It's good legal and psychological strategy to render aid, but only if safe to do so. He dealt the cards, and frankly doesn't have the moral stature of a battlefield enemy. I'll be sure to tell the cops that I want him arrested whether he bleeds to death or not.
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The United States Marine Corps: Providing the enemies of America the opportunity to die for their countries since 1775. Semper fi.
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