Re: A newbies confusion about GPL(BS)
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.
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