Originally Posted by
Ovidio
I have never been in war, so I can't really talk about this matter.
But I think that all those facts are just the product of human reactions to complex, highly distressing situations repeated for days, weeks and months.
Some people will react in a way, others will let the beast surface and become merciless or criminal.
But again, it is necessary to know the whole story, which is almost impossible to do.
I often think about one of the most famous pictures of the Nam war: Eddie Adams's photo of Brigadier General Nguyen Ngoc Loan shooting a Viet Cong prisoner.
I saw it once labeled "the pop into non-being". That caused me to really think a lot about it, and made that picture unforgettable and a bit haunting to me.
The General was considered a criminal at first. Then, information came through and the prisoner was accused of having killed the entire family of a colleague and friend of his.
Does this give a man the right to kill a beast? In peacetime it clearly does not (although I sometimes waver in this conviction of mine), but what about wartime. Such a war at that, practically a mix of civil war, clash of ideologies, colonial liberation war... With also a lot in terms of racial prejudice and cultural barriers...
It happened in all wars, is still happening now and will always happen.
As I do for many other things, I pray to God that, should I ever find myself in such a situation, I could remain a good person. Steadfast in my duties and obligations, but still human. Retain a vivid conscience, a human conscience, a Christian conscience.
But I will never bet a cent on this, until tested by reality. Which, if everything goes the way I hope, will never occur.
Not much of a contribution, but I felt like writing it.
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