"'...if you let men be jackals, don't expect them to fight. Looting and rape are their privileges on foreign soil, not among our own people. Otherwise we're bandits...'"
-The Forge, CHAPTER SIX, p. 92.
Looting and rape are privileges, not war crimes! Give me strength! - as Raj prayed here.
SM Stirling excels not only in villains but also in heroes of societies so different from ours that the criteria of heroism are also very different. See the combox discussion for Who Are The Good Guys?
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
I agree with your regret pm what was considered the customary privileges of soldiers on foreign soil. But, to be strictly fair, it was not all that different in Western civilization till the 1600's. Before then, it was much as Raj said. It had to wait till the 1600s before ideas about setting limits on what armies could "legitimately" do started spreading. We are not going to see the Geneva Conventions or the Covenant of Alfzar on Bellevue!
Sean
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