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different opinions
Posted by: kurt ()
Date: June 07, 2001 03:56PM

<HTML>Rainer;

thanks for your thoughts.

\"A surviving Peleus crew could contribute to the war effort just as well in their specialty as Japanese Soldiers to theirs.\"

True. Both contributed to the war effort. But the Japanese troops were uniformed combat troops. The Peleus crew were civilians. By your logic, Hitler\'s order to kill all merchant mariners was a - ok.

Civilians are not soldiers. Soldiers are legitimate targets. Anytime, anywhere. Civilians are not legitmate targets unless you have too shoot at them to get at some other target (a merchantmen, or a weapons factory) or they are shooting back. There is a world of difference in my mind. We will have to agree to disagree on this.

\"MM decision to subdue resistance is defensible, subsequent whole sale slaughter is not!\"

Again, there is no rule of warfare that killing enemy soldiers is only justified when it is a hard, even fight, and immoral when it is one sided. At no point did the troops in question try to surrender or cease firing. They wanted to go down fighting, so Mush gave them their wish. Is strafing wrong when ground troops have no AA weapons? The use of tanks wrong if the enemy has no AT weapons? Maybe it is immoral to torpedo a merchantman (or troopship) with no escorts around? No, war is about pushing your advantage. While examples in sub warfare are few, there are many, many examples of one sided bloodletting in warfare.

While the soldiers facing Mush were at the moment near helpless, they would probably be rescued and serve in combat in the near future. In similar conditions in the Battle for Guadacanal, the victims of transport sinkings were methodically machine gunned in the water (by US aircraft) because they were swimmimg ashore - those that made it to shore would reinforce the Japanese troops there in a battle whose outcome was very much in doubt. Every IJA soldier that made it ashore could kill another US soldier.

I guess I don\'t see why it is immoral to kill a soldier who is momentarily helpless, but ok wait till he is re-armed and then to bomb, shell, and shoot him to death later at great risk.

I have no problem with Mush\'s actions, but I admit to not being \'mainstream\' in my opinions. Even in the sub service in WWII his actions were at the fringe, and, in fact, were a unique instance for that service.



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Subject Written By Posted
crew of U-470 abandoned Dave McQueen 06/05/2001 08:12PM
RE: crew of U-470 abandoned Brian Corijn 06/05/2001 09:03PM
RE: crew of U-470 abandoned Dave McQueen 06/06/2001 07:04AM
RE: crew of U-470 abandoned Steve Cooper 06/06/2001 12:27PM
RE: USS Juneau Rainer Bruns 06/06/2001 01:03PM
RE: crew of U-470 abandoned becorijn@zeelandnet.nl 06/06/2001 01:14PM
USS Juneau Michael Lowrey 06/06/2001 02:41PM
RE: USS Juneau Michael Lowrey 06/06/2001 03:22PM
RE: crew of U-470 abandoned Rainer Bruns 06/06/2001 01:11PM
RE: crew of U-470 abandoned Steve 06/06/2001 01:29PM
RE: crew of U-470 abandoned -Dave John Griffiths 06/06/2001 05:18PM
RE: crew of U-470 abandoned -Dave Ted Agar 06/06/2001 07:29PM
RE: crew of U-470 abandoned -Dave Tom Iwanski 06/06/2001 07:59PM
in defense of Mush kurt 06/06/2001 08:55PM
RE: in defense of Mush Steve Cooper 06/07/2001 01:27PM
Mushs first wahoos third kurt 06/07/2001 03:21PM
RE: in defense of Eck Tim 06/08/2001 01:44AM
Eck knew he was killing survivors kurt 06/08/2001 05:05PM
With all due respect John Dave McQueen 06/07/2001 06:44AM
RE: With all due respect John John Griffiths 06/07/2001 04:10PM
RE: crew of U-470 abandoned Steve 06/06/2001 12:19AM
RE: crew of U-470 abandoned Joe Brennan 06/06/2001 06:00AM
RE: other example Rainer Bruns 06/06/2001 01:06PM
realities of war kurt 06/06/2001 03:41PM
RE: realities of war Walt 06/06/2001 10:08PM
RE: realities of war Steve 06/07/2001 10:02AM
RE: wrong spot, defending Mush Rainer Bruns 06/06/2001 11:31PM
Mush and Eck kurt 06/07/2001 04:01AM
RE: Mush and Eck Rainer Bruns 06/07/2001 11:32AM
RE: Mush and Eck Walt 06/07/2001 12:04PM
RE: Mush and Eck Steve Cooper 06/07/2001 01:21PM
RE: Mush and Eck Walt 06/07/2001 04:59PM
RE: Mush and Eck Tim 06/08/2001 02:06AM
RE: Mush and Eck Rainer Bruns 06/07/2001 03:43PM
RE: Mush and Eck Walt 06/07/2001 04:57PM
different opinions kurt 06/07/2001 03:56PM
RE: different opinions Rich Mickle 06/07/2001 11:03PM
RE: different opinions Siri Lawson 06/08/2001 03:56AM
RE: different opinions Rich Mickle 06/08/2001 08:51AM


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