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Originally Posted by Katczinsky  Not everyone, apparently: War Crimes Act of 1996. Realistically speaking, most US presidents past and current (under the implication that people are deserving of the death penalty in circumstances of war crimes and the death of innocent people) would have been tried and executed. But the inconsistency is that generally people in this country consider many members of the government and military to be above the law.
I remember some people getting indicted for implications for war crimes, and I think even imprisoned but not executed. But generally speaking, when things like that happen they largely aren't reported or they fall on deaf ears. |
That could be part of it. There's also the factor of cutting people who are in a combat situations some slack.
For example, I don't know if you've ever read the works of Stephen Ambrose, but as a fan of WWII history, I've read a couple of his books. In a couple of places, he talks of instances where U.S. soldiers would just lose it and blow away Germans who just had or were trying to surrender. But, he surmises we shouldn't judge those men too harshly. Some of them had been in near-constant firefights for days at a time... sometimes even longer. They had been killing and watching death and killing -- including seeing some of their best friends getting torn to shreds. Under those circumstances, he reasoned, it might not be entirely fair for us who have never seen war to judge the actions of those men.
Likewise, again, somebody who has been under constant combat stress for days -- or even weeks -- at at time might act toward civilians in ways we can't fully understand.
I'm not trying to excuse all war crimes... esp. the more blatant ones.. but the stress soldiers in a combat zone are under is a factor you have to consider. The logic of our world doesn't really apply in situations like that. If at first you don’t succeed – try, try again and then quit. There’s no sense in making a damned fool of yourself. – W.C. Fields
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