-Caveat Lector-
Hein-sight
Who's innocent?
July 27, 2001
Paul Hein tells why all victims in war are innocent.
In the outpouring of verbiage attendant to the execution of Timothy
McVeigh, there were numerous references to "innocent" victims.
Certainly, those whom McVeigh killed were innocent of any evil intention
towards him, or of any past wrongdoing directed at him: indeed, it is
almost certain that his victims had never heard of him.
They were also innocent in that they had not committed any act calling
for the death penalty. But McVeigh evidently considered himself a
soldier, acting against an enemy. In military operations there are
always deaths of "innocent" civilians. This concept of innocence is an
interesting one.
Military operations are to be directed toward military targets, sparing the
civilian population. But, in practice, this is not done. For one reason or
another, civilians are always targeted. Without them, for instance, the
soldier would be starving, naked, unarmed, and immobile. Innocent
civilians provide the soldier with transportation, weapons, food, and
clothing. (Do governments provide their soldiers with uniforms to make
them conspicuous targets?)
And what of the soldiers themselves? Most of them were, until a short
time before entering battle, innocent civilians. They were given a choice
by their governments of entering military service, or prison. Nearly all
chose military service, for to go to prison means giving up your freedom
for a while, wearing a uniform, eating when and what you are offered,
rising and retiring when told to do so, and working at some task which
may not be to your liking, whereas, if you accept military service, you
will eat when and what you are offered, get up and retire when told to do
so, wear a uniform, give up your freedom for a while, and perform tasks
which may not be to your liking. But prisoners are strongly discouraged
from killing anyone, whereas soldiers are given medals for doing it.
Wanton destruction of property is also encouraged for soldiers, not for
prisoners.
The same is true of the "enemy." His government has also provided him
with what he needs to kill strangers against whom he has no particular
animosity, and threatened him with reprisals if he is disinclined to do
so. Like the victims of McVeigh, the soldiers killed in battle had done
nothing deserving of the death penalty. They were just in the wrong
place at the wrong time, like the workers in the ball-bearing factories at
Schweinfurt, or the oil fields at Ploesti.
If there is "guilt," as opposed to "innocence" in warfare, whether
declared or not, it might consist in acquiescing to the demands of those
who have a vested interest in the killing and looting.
Franz Jagerstatter was a farmer in an Austrian town so small it wasn't
on the map. When Austria was incorporated into the Third Reich, in
1938, the men of Austria were told to report for induction into the
German army. The alternative was not simply prison, but death.
Jagerstatter, declaring his refusal to serve in an immoral war, reported
as ordered, but declined induction. He was arrested, and sentenced to
die. Even the night before his death, however, he could have saved his
life by signing a document pledging his fealty to Germany, and
accepting a non-combatant position in the German army. He refused,
and was executed. He was truly an innocent civilian!
There are, indeed, innocent victims in war. They are not simply
civilians, but soldiers as well. There is, indeed, guilt, as well. Those
who are guilty do not risk their own lives or fortunes. Perhaps the
soldiers, if they knew the truth, would point their rifles in a different
direction. Or, even better, they would not allow themselves to become
soldiers at all. In war, all who die are innocent victims!
Paul Hein, an ophthalmologist, is author of All Work and No Pay. His
column, "Hein-sight," will run on alternate Fridays in Spintech.
http://www.spintechmag.com/2001/ph072701.htm8:41:05 AM 7/29/2001
--
Best Wishes
If you want to know the difference between a defense and an offense,
assume your enemy is *willing to commit suicide* when he attacks.
If you can stop him while saving yourself under those conditions,
then what you have qualifies as a defense.
-Donald Kingsbury, The Moon Goddess and the Son_
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