McC wrote:Watch your mother die and then tell me you have the presence of mind to give two shits about who's a "valid target" and who's not.
I know that I wouldn't massacre an entire tribe of people.
To answer your question directly, where the Nazi Youth children working at the death camp?
No. They had no part in the Holocaust at all and were only being trained for the military as early as 10 years of age (at least until the Battle of Berlin). However, the Bund Deutscher Määdel (BDM), or League of German Maidens, rode in the freight trains to concentration camps. But that's as far as their participation went.
If so, then their status as "invalid targets" becomes very questionable. Changing the rules a bit, if a close friend confessed to me that he had killed "even the Nazi youth!" working at the death camp they tortured his mother at, I wouldn't be remotely disturbed by this action. Would I take it myself? Possibly -- depends on the level of rage, the size of the death camp (were they totally isolated from the torture, directly involved? did they stone my mother as part of the torture?), and so forth. I cannot accurately predict with complete certainty what I would do in such a circumstance. I do know it would not be pretty.
But they never did participate in the Holocaust, so it's a null point.
We're going to end up arguing semantics pretty soon...oh wait, here we go! Much being the key word. Much, particularly when talking about Tuskens, can mean just the men and women combatants.
Then you should have said that directly.
Maybe. I generally hope it never comes to pass, personally
Heh. I doubt it would.
Stofsk wrote:Yes, they are. Because that would be war time, and if those kids pick up a rifle and defend the Fatherland they're just as valid targets than if they're 18 years old and 'adult'.
That's fine. But what I'm talking about is the Hitler's Youth that didn't become soldiers yet, that were still in training. Besides, if the children Tusken Raiders tried to attack Anakin, then in my eyes they would also be combatants. Whether or not he should have killed them instead of "Force push them away to render them unconcious" is a different matter though. That is what he
should have done. But we don't know what happened. All we know is that he killed
everyone, and I think it's safe to assume that there were
some non-combatants in the whole tribe. Hell, what if some of them were still infants?
I have heard at least one story from my previous History teacher who related to the class how a friend of his during the Vietnam War had to shoot a child because he was going to set off a set of bombs and kill his squad. He was right to do so, even if it was a child, because to do nothing meant to indirectly cause the deaths or serious injury of his squadmates.
As stated before, if a child was a combatant, then I agree that he should have been attacked. But then again the troops had no choice but to kill him while Anakin had the choice of "Force push them away to render them unconcious" or slice and dice them.
You're assuming that Force push might be commanded under the circumstances. When you're enraged and blind to reason, a few things that might depend on co-ordination or presence of mind might be difficult a feat to invoke. Meanwhile, the lightsaber is active and humming, and a lot easier to use. It's not called "the quick, easy path" for nothing.
Tell that to Maul who did the same trick to Obi-Wan, even though he's always enraged when he fights. Also, Vader did the same trick later on with all of the multiple objects he was flinging at Luke simultaneously.
And yet his actions are perfectly understandable given what he found they did to his mother. He wasn't acting rationally, he was consumed with anger and hatred. It's ugly, abhorrent, and evil, but it also happens to be human, and understandable.
It's understandable for a savage, which is what Anakin was, or became.