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A Time-honored Tradition - Bloodletting
NMB, Florida November 13, 2001 A.H. Schectman
THINKING ALLOWED
Essays on Issues, Ideas and Reflections on the Times. Published Now and
Then. Opinions Pro or Con Are Welcome.
A TIME HONORED TRADITION - BLOODLETTING
It is a time-honored tradition to shed the blood of the conquered. We read
in today's newspapers the story of the Afghanistan Northern Alliance's
successful advance on the Taliban forces even up to the Capitol City of
Kabul. We are shown pictures of the winning soldiers executing wounded
enemy and those who have surrendered.
This IS a time-honored tradition. Did you notice the executions of the
Chechen rebels by the Russian soldiers who had a long list of grievances
against them just for living? Do you remember in Cuba when Fidel Castro's
rebels captured the Island and began wholesale executions of captured
"capitalists" who were betrayed by neighbors and put against a wall and shot
in those heady first days of control?
Our own revered writer of the Declaration of Independence and President of
our nation's early days reveled in the blood let by the revolutionaries who
began the transformation of monarchical France. That French Revolution was
marked by the celebratory use of the democratic execution machine, the
Guillotine. All it took to send someone to its clasp was the accusation by
an anonymous hater against a Royal, a Nobel, a rich landowner or just
someone you disliked. Heads rolled and Thomas Jefferson applauded.
The excesses of winners in battles or just plain disputes are what make
feuds possible. We used our good sense after World War II to make up for
the blunders of rubbing the noses of our downed enemies in World War I into
the dust. We sometimes allow excesses, just because we can.
Our enemies among our friends will now point out in retrospect that we
could have managed toppling the Taliban in a more "humane" fashion. This is
because some of us believe in humane treatment of those who had a different
outlook when they were in power. That is the difference between them and
us. That may be the difference between our "friends" and us.
Carol's Evaluation: 10 out of 10.
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