Wow. I'm sorry, but you have a very twisted mind. You got it backwards. You hold the person who did the deed responsible, don't blame their "master."
Curiously, this is the "personal responsibility" the Republican war-mongers are always going on about.
If your friend told you to jump off a bridge, would you? Who's to blame if you did? You or your friend?
I was thinking exactly the same thing when this thread began, but thought it politic not to bring it up. Feared it would seem trite.
Every man can make his own choices. You don't have to obey orders (unless you are physically forced to). That's one of the reasons why I feel that Hitler is an innocent man. The Nazis had minds of their own and they could have easily revolted and killed Hitler, but no, they were mindless sheep and are 100% responsible for the crimes they committed.
Now you've really stepped in it, Tathagata. Excusing Hitler? You're going to catch some flack for this.
In the same vein, today's soldiers are morally responsible for their actions, not the commanders.
I agree that the soldiers must be held accountable. Their commanders cannot, christlike, take their subordinate's sins upon themselves. People are personally responsible for their own actions.
However, inasmuch as the commanders had a reasonable expectation that their subordinates would carry out their orders, moral or not, they share a degree of responsibility.
There are situations, if I were in, in which I wouldn't hesitate to kill someone. (Yes, I am still currently in the Army.) One situation is if ANYONE purposely tried to shoot me first.
I agree -- and I'm a left-leaning, Kum-by-ya, vegan pacifist. I have no problem with violence to prevent harm or greater violence.
My problem with the military, though, is that they routinely inflict violence upon ordinary people who have done them no harm, women and children, people who are no threat to them.
Does a police officer have "loose morals and an evil heart" if he killed someone to protect you and your family?
A police officer will not shoot at a felon if there's a risk of hitting an innocent. A soldier will.
Explain.
Hitler never killed anyone, and on the one occasion he was taken to the scene of a massacre he was physically ill.
The question of evil is not so black and white.
That is not true. Bush bought Bin ladens family tickets out of the country AFTER 9/11
To clarify, after 9/11 air traffic was shut down for several days across the US -- with the exception of military flights
and those carrying members of the Bin-Laden family out of the country.
