That is from the movie Breaker Morant; set in the waning days of the Boer War, the issue is the trial of some British officers for murder. The Boer War was the first of the modern, twilight wars where national armies were pitted against a shadowy enemy who lived among ostensibly civilian personnel, and whose rule of war was ambush, and often cruelty. In order to counter these tactics, the British engaged in a lot of different sorts of actions – including the use of what we would call “counter-insurgency” operations; men trained to operate and fight like the enemy. In such actions, hard men were called upon to do very rough things – and for political reasons it was eventually considered expedient for the British government to disassociate itself from the forces they had raised.
Such is war – a terrible thing. During war, many things can be done in the heat of battle which in the cool light of hindsight appear unwise, perhaps even wicked. In the Breaker Morant story, the point was whether it was really right and proper to try men for things done in battle – can a man really commit murder on a battlefield? This is a question without answer – and which can never be answered. But all of us who have not had to walk in such shoes must be very slow to judge those who have.
It is to be hoped that liberals will now reflect. Here is an event – the killing of bin Laden – which was an action under “Rule .303”. We took him and we shot him under Rule .303. It was a hard deed; but some times such things are necessary. And some times it is necessary to roughly handle other enemies, in other circumstances. Liberals expressed shock and horror over waterboarding as well as other tactics used in this war – what of shooting an unarmed man? Which is worse? In truth, neither is worse – because depending on the circumstances, either can be the correct action.
When ever a human being contemplates shedding the blood of another, the default position must be to err on the side of mercy. If an excuse can be found or a mitigating circumstance determined, that is the course to be taken. But after considering it in that light, after praying over the various actions contemplated, it is determined that a hard deed must be done, then those of us who had no part in the decision or the carrying out of the mission should be wary of sitting in judgment. We don’t know the pressures the decision maker and the actors were under – we weren’t them, and we weren’t there. A bit of empathy goes a long way – and would have done liberals a lot of good 2001-2009. It is to be hoped that now they’ve directly blood on their own hands, liberals will start to learn a bit of wisdom.
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