Ordered to kill.

Editor,

I don't buy the argument that Libyan military personnel "tortured and killed only on orders," nor am I impressed by the argument that “You’re a soldier, you must obey orders. At that moment, if you say no, you will be considered a traitor and added to the victims. And if you don’t do the execution, others will.”

The sad fact of the matter is that everyone must be willing to give his life for something. Some people jump into ice cold water to rescue a drowning man. Some fight an oppressive regime that murders and tortures with impunity.

It is an act of cowardice to save one's own skin by killing others who are fighting for their own dignity as human beings. Why any particular individual works for a thug in the first place is problematic, as is why he does the boss's dirty work.

You can make a torturer or killer out to be a victim of a vicious regime, and in fact you might be right. But if that victim is already a dead man if he doesn't do what he is told is no excuse for his victimizing others. If he is ordered to kill, then kill he must, but not the target he is ordered to kill.

Re: "In Libya, the Captors Have Become the Captive" (5/13/2012)