I understand exactly what you are saying, Arnt. I have always believed in giving social law the first opportunity, without this we have chaos. Unfortunately, in a war situation, we are no longer in an environment where the normal standards apply. Oh yes the geneva convention standards apply, and soldiers at the front, if they get an occasional breather, might discuss them every now and again, but first there is survival. Survival in a primal environment is enhanced by adherence to the standard of the group. There is the approved order from high command, who are also well aware without wanting to know about it, of the tacit approval given at lower levels for the kind of activities that are seen as required, to gain the objectives that those situated in higher command want.
So soldiers at the base level and just above carry out commands issued by those in immediate juxtaposition to their own situation. And in so doing line up in a queue reserved for all the potential scapegoats, but a questionable future is better than none. I knew a man once who, at the end of WWII, demobbed, took of his uniform, but remained a segeant in the army all his life, because he had learnt a pattern of behaviour that, as far as he could be assured, and with some verification with practice over a period of some six years, meant an opportunity for survival. I'm not trying to justify what happens in war. I know exactly what happens, if I haven't seen it myself, my friends have. I have a friend of some years standing who has told me about things that happened in Somalia that make the earlier quoted example common place. He lived through it. He's the eldest son of the ex prime minister of Somalia. Harry, retired now, a shipwright on an oiltanker into the gulf described how Australian commercial shipping refused to accept an escort from American ships because they were simply too provocative (do you think that they would behave like that if they hadn't been given orders to that effect?). So they would only accept an escort from a British destroyer. There are many, many other examples. They could all be reported. If the sociological pressure applied to leave the situation alone was endured to the point where an investigation was made, the national image would have to be preserved, and the next production unit would be rolled off the queue of scapegoats. 'When the law of society fails to protect the innocent, the law of the jungle prevails' (Kipling). 'This is not a free elective, it is an automatic process' (Me). Regards, David. -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
