re: #216 moderatelyradicalliberal

It would be amazing if the rebels showed some mercy, but nobody else likes hearing “I was just following orders” so why should they?

It depends. If the person was simply conscripted to fight the rebels and did not engage in war crimes, then they should face no punishment. After World War Two, the Allies specifically exempted the 9th and 10th SS Panzer Division from condemnation en masse as war criminals on the grounds that both divisions had consisted of conscripts.

If however, they did engage in war crimes, then it gets a lot more complicated. My own feeling is that while the fact that some such people did have a gun to their head, that only mitigates their guilt, it does not absolve them (this was the Nuremberg standard as well) . It was still wrong of them to murder for Gaddafi, even on pain of death. Ludwig’s talked about this and I find myself agreeing with him: If your choice is to murder a helpless person for the tyrant or be killed, the moral thing to do is not aid the tyrant and accept death. I would find such “unwilling executioners’ guilty, but then give them a reduced sentence.