charlemagne

This is for Sky, and as such it might be a work in progress.

Any honor left in war?

The old cliche that all is fair in love and war was true, is true and will be true for as long as people love and fight. Honor in war is a weapon, and like all weapons, it goes in and out of fashion. If honor has any use, it is called up for service, and it is ignored if it becomes an embarrassment.

Read the Iliad, the greatest work on war in our literature, and you can see this principle in action. Achilles withdraws from the Greek army because his honor has been besmirched, but when he wreaks vengeance for the death of Patrocles, honor goes out the window.

Prior to his invasion of France, Henry V used propaganda to show how the French had dishonored him, yet what happened at the Battle of Agincourt? He had his army slaughter thousands of helpless prisoners because of expediency. His army was small, and if he had to continue the battle, he didn't want all of those prisoners at his back. One could hardly call his action honorable, though at the time I don't think anyone criticized him for what he did.

Read the first paragraph of Chapter XV from Machiavelli's The Prince. No one has said it better, though all rulers decry it while they do it!

Of course, the word honor has many meanings, and I'll not go into them. Sky can do that if she wishes.

West Point motto: "Duty, honor, Country." Hmm! Honor means don't get caught cheating on tests or doing something nasty on the battlefield or with government funds. Emphasis is on the word "caught."

Stephen Decatur said, "My country! Right or wrong, my country!" Well, there's nothing about honor in that, is there? And this motto naturally reminds me of another one. "Mein Ehre ist Treu," the motto of the SS. "My honor is loyalty." Grim!

Where was honor at Auschwitz? Or for that matter, in the bombing of Dresden?

Good luck, Sky, on your dissertation!