Originally posted by Raptor
What gets on my nerves something fierce though, is all the hand-wringing vis a vis the rights of "innocent" Black Lance members. No-one particularly seems to give a damn about the billions of Kilrathi we killed when we took out Kilrah in WC3, or the Mandarins we killed when we nuked Ayer's rock, or the Border Worlders who got killed when Confed went on the warpath against them. Those are generally just accepted being a part of war. Why is it the Black Lance deserve to be treated with kid gloves when Confed comes down like a hammer on any other group that is a threat (or is percieved to be a threat) to the safety of the Confederation?
The BL at the end of WC4 no longer pose any military threat to Confed's security. They are also part of Confed. The way Confed goes about handling the Black Lance has serious implications for whether Confed wants to be a free nation or a tyranny.
Also, destroying Kilrah was the only alternative to the extinction of humanity. By contrast, I don't see *quite* that level of urgency when dealing with the now-exposed Black Lance. Without their Dragons they aren't much, and now that we know who they are there's very little they can accomplish. Therefore, we have other options besides simply killing them all. Remember: the destruction of Kilrah was a last-ditch option, something we pursued because all our other options were exhausted. That is not the case in dealing with the Black Lance.
Use the Nazi party analogy: Contrary to popular opinion, it isn't *against the law* to be a Nazi. Bad taste, yes. Reprehensible, certainly. Shows you to be a small-minded nasty human being, definitely. But illegal? No.
That's why, after WWII, the allies disqualified most Nazi party members from any activity in the post-war German government. HOWEVER, the only people who actually did hard time or worse were those who had provably committed crimes. For example, Hermann Goering was not put to death for being in the Nazi party, but for "Crimes against Humanity", "Crimes against Peace" and "Waging Aggressive War". There are lots of former Nazis alive even today in South America, but the Anti-Nazi prosecutors only interest themselves in those (like Adolph Eichmann) who were involved in the death camps or otherwise involved in the Holocaust. Ordinary soldiers (like Otto Skorzeny) are completely ignored.
The distinction is crucial; It's not a crime to hold political beliefs in a democracy; It IS a crime to act on those beliefs in a criminal manner. Thus, no Black Lancer, in a free country, would be put to death simply because they were in the Black Lance. Instead, they would be put to death if it could be proved that they had committed, or abetted others in committing, Murder, Piracy, Genocide, or other capital crime.
Somebody else mentioned that summary execution was completely legal by Confed's law by the time of WC4. Well, yeah. But just because it's legal doesn't mean it's right. In some countries narcotics, handguns, prostitution, and tobacco are all perfectly legal, but it doesn't make them good things. Besides .. do you really want to live in a Confed where people like Tolwyn make the laws?
I'm glad Confed beat the Black Lance. If only they can avoid the temptation to BECOME the Black Lance in the process.
Respectfully,
Brian P.