Tuesday, April 29, 2008

Is there ever an excuse

We know that constant exposure to fear and violence can make people do horrible things, but can we--as civilized humans--ever excuse atrocities, even if committed in moments of passion? How do we handle war crimes?

17 comments:

Camen said...

There is never an excuse for committing atrocities against other human beings. You might be able to understand it, but you will never be able to justify it. Crimes committed during war are oftentimes understandable, but absolutely never excusable. Wars bring out the worst in people, but that doesn't serve as a sufficient explanation for doing horrible things. Those who commit awful sins, even during wartime, have to be prosecuted and brought to justice. If we give out "get out of jail free cards" for war crimes, we're setting ourselves up for those kinds of crimes to happen again. Laws allow to define what is right and what is wrong. They have got to be enforced, objectively and oftentimes unpassionately, otherwise they are meaningless.

Quincy said...

Wow, that's kind of harsh, Camen. I think that you're wanting to paint the world black and white. War crimes are bad. Evil. Black. Burn the witches!

Even if you take the position that there is "no excuse" for war crimes, you've got to define what those are more specifically. Being so absolute often gets a lot of people into hot water--and when you decide to be so absolute, your intented meaning can be twisted.

What about the Nazi soldiers who did their jobs or commited war crimes because of fear? That story gets thrown around a lot. It's hard to say who lied and who didn't. But aren't people forced to do horrible things still good people at heart? Don't we support the soldiers who took up "Kill or be killed" as their motto?

Chazz Michael Michaels said...

we need to punish those who commit war crimes. if the government does not punish people who commit war crimes it will undermine our army's mission and goal in securing americas safety. we cannot have idividuals disrupting our efforts to complete our mission.

kat_09 said...

It seems we put these people commiting war crimes all in the same catagory, when you can not call everyone sally and expect them to all be a sally. If every crime deserves punishment then we should kick all those mentally disabled people in the street and say what you have done is all your fault and you can not blame your broken mind. It takes a man/woman of courage to go it to war but we should not expect people to not fear and make stupid decisions. If we were placed in these harsh situations we can say we may never fall. A person should be examined more than the crime before prosecuted.

kat_09 said...

**...can NOT say we may never fall.**

Beyonce said...

The only political way to approach war crime punishment is to treat it as any other crime against man. Overcome with emotion or not, you know right from wrong when you go into war so the decisions you make while there are still your responsibility.

kat_09 said...

is a child holding a gun right or wrong? Is going into a village and having to kill everyone to survive right or wrong? War changes everything when it comes to right and wrong, all you know to be wrong you seen done everyday and get a metal for killing millions. Can we honestly say that they should be the same coming out of war as they are coming in?

Anonymous said...

That would be the rub, wouldn't it? That was one of the problems in Vietnam--there were kids carrying bombs and guns--and the enemy and friends looked alike..no uniforms or flags. Have you guys read Lord of the Flies? It becomes very hard to remain civilized as the trappings of humanity are shed--clothing, unspoken rules, safety--and what was weird yesterday is survival today. What would you do to soembody who had just shot your best friend? of course, i would probably have shot Rat Kiley myself.

Anonymous said...

That would be the rub, wouldn't it? That was one of the problems in Vietnam--there were kids carrying bombs and guns--and the enemy and friends looked alike..no uniforms or flags. Have you guys read Lord of the Flies? It becomes very hard to remain civilized as the trappings of humanity are shed--clothing, unspoken rules, safety--and what was weird yesterday is survival today. What would you do to soembody who had just shot your best friend? of course, i would probably have shot Rat Kiley myself.

snorkle!!! said...

War has its time and its place. Once someone leaves the war they should do their best to leave it all behind. I realize its hard because o the things they see and do but that's really not an excuse to lash out on people when they are at home. In the war soldiers are doing what they are ordered to do, so they really don't have a choice. Crimes committed in war should not be punished however if those acts are brought home the person who commits the the crime should be punished; war is not a good excuse. I also think that, along with the punishment, they should recieve some kind of counseling because they clearly have some unresolved issues about the war.

chad said...

i dont think that there will every be a specific way to handle war crimes because there are so many crimes committed that it is hard to pin it on one person. war is just about the only time that civilized humans we would ever excuse the atrocities. i think that to some point the crimes are wrong but for the most part there is no way to deal with it than to just leave it all behind and dont mention it any more

Knightley said...

wow....you guys are really harsh towards people who go and fight to protect you.....people go to war. In Vietnam there were people who were forced to go to war. These were young men who wanted to go home and not die. They were trying not to die. War is a ugly thing and as much as I am for diplomacy, it doesn't always work. People don't listen all the time. You can't force people to agree with you. You can just listen to them and respect their opinions. That is what you have to do with war crimes. The decisions that people made during the war were their decisions and theirs alone. People react in stressful and life-threatening situations with their insticts, which is mainly, DON'T DIE. You can't punish someone that has a split-second to decide whether they should shoot someone while they themselves are being shot at. Soliders do not have time to sit down for twenty minutes and contimplate on what they should or should not do. People react to things, their reactions are not always good, but that is what happens that is how life is. There are war crimes out there, the ones that really need to be punished are those that give out secrets to the enemy. If you all think that what soliders do is so wrong then you can go off to war, fight, and see what you would do in their situation!

ChocolateLover said...

The only time that there is ever an excuse for committing a violent act is if you are acting in self defense. There is no reason for a human being to hurt another human being in the first place, but sometimes you do need to defend yourself. As for war crimes, it would be nearly impossible to punish every criminal because there are just way too many. Most war crimes should be excused anyway...i mean it IS a war. The goal is to rid yourself and your country of the enemy. Of course it would be great if conflicts could be settled peacefully, but there are times when that just isn't possible.

Bob Barker said...

How can you win a war? By defeating your enemies. That is the only way. What your enemies do to keep you from doing that is not your fault. Killing a boy is terrible and should be avoided as much as possible, but it was the enemy who killed them in the first place. They sent them in to be killed, not you. So called "war crimes" should be punished if they were unnecessary, meaning that they could have been avoided.Spur of the moment actions in a war cannot be punished fairly however.

Robert Allen said...

first of all camen is an Idiot. War crimes are a grey area in so many curcumstances because after all it is war. I mean soliders are trained to defeat the enemy in any way possible. Bob Barker is a smart person! Humans are violent there is nothing we can do to change that. people should just be more controlling of their anger.

Anonymous said...

War crimes are to be punished if they are avoidable. However, there are a lot of things that happen in war that if they happened in regular life would be considered terrible, but war is different. Terrible things happen in war and the point of war is to destroy the enemy so some terrible things might have to happen in order for that to occur

Gimmeguac! said...

war is a completely different ball game. our boys were thrown into the mix unwillingly. no one knew how they would react. these were young boys. they obviously couldnt handle it