War Is Hell But Due Process Still Bliss

Gen Sherman needn’t remind us “War is Hell.” We need look no further than the Kuzminov assassination & Russian-Ukraine debacle. Western sensibilities still not convinced it’s not just a Ruskie thing? Ask Washington, Bonaparte or Lincoln. Then, remember, our “means” matters.

The thought for this historical observation emerged while reading the WSJ’s long investigative piece titled, “Russians Keep Turning Up Dead All Over the World.” Kuzminov was a Russian helicopter pilot who defected to Ukraine & was the latest of many, the newspaper says, who were killed in various ways, this time in a Spanish resort. Something about how an emboldened Putin is finding it most efficient to eliminate what he considers traitors on foreign soil & dispense with a thing called court martial. Most Western media has been aghast at such reports, as it should be. Yet, it might also behoove our Judeo-Christian selves to recall our own traitors & how our devotion to the Rule of Law has & still does separate us from much of the rest of the world.

Take Washington’s being victimized by the British who bought off Benedict Arnold. Or, during the French Revolution, how many of us even know that the then-general & future emperor Napoleon was jailed twice during Robespierre’s Reign of Terror for suspected treason, both times uncomfortably close to a shave with the guillotine. Then, of course, there’s Father Abraham being shot dead at Ford’s Theater at the end of the US Civil War by John Wilkes Booth working with several co-conspirators. In each case, George, Napoleon & Abe’s survivors remained committed to giving even the worst of their enemies Due Process rather than summary judgment & execution. It’s something for Westerners to be proud of. And, another reason why it’s important that radicals in our midst … whether they be in academia, MSM, politics, gov’t or the court system … do not get to act like a Putin vis a vis their political opponents.

Davd Soul