Christopher Hitchens writes:
John Kerry actually claims to have shot a fleeing Viet Cong soldier from the riverbank, something that I personally would have kept very quiet about. He used to claim that he was a witness to, and almost a participant in, much worse than that.
Maybe there’s part of the story that I’m missing here — quite likely, since I haven’t been following the Kerry-in-Vietnam matters very closely (except the Christmas in Cambodia story, which I’ve been following chiefly because it seems relatively simple compared to the other items) — but what’s wrong with shooting a fleeing enemy soldier?
Shooting a surrendering soldier is forbidden; but fleeing soldiers generally flee to fight another day, or even to fight you again when they get behind cover. This is why, as I understand it, shooting fleeing soldiers, assuming you have sufficient reason to believe them to indeed be enemy soldiers, is quite legal and in my view quite morally permissible. Or is there some other fact (say, some aspect of the rules of engagement in Vietnam) that would make this behavior improper?
UPDATE: A couple of readers suggest that Hitchens is merely saying that shooting a fleeing soldier isn’t enough to justify a medal for valor, rather than saying that it’s an atrocity or even immoral. I’m not sure that’s quite right, given the “would have kept very quiet about” line, and the connection drawn by the next sentence to atrocities. (The sentence does say that Kerry’s atrocity allegations were indeed related to much worse behavior, but the connection suggests that the atrocities and the shooting of the fleeing soldier are at least of the same kind, though very different in degree.) Still, if that’s simply Hitchens’ point — that shooting a fleeing soldier in the back isn’t a sign of bravery, though it isn’t criminal or evil, and wouldn’t disqualify one for a medal earned earlier in the firefight — then that makes more sense.
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