Warfare is certainly known as a time where man’s inhumanity to his fellow man (or woman) is often on full display. But we don’t necessarily dwell on this question in the history books: if we’ll commit atrocities on another human being in the name of King and Country (or equivalent), what would we be willing to do to an animal?
Well, it’s not a pretty subject to delve into. Nowadays if you google up “pigs and landmines” you’ll get articles about pigs being trained to carefully snuffle them out, rather than the darker accounts of herds being intentionally driven onto suspect fields, which I suppose provided not only mine clearance but a good source of pork for dinner so long as you didn’t mind a little shrapnel in your bacon.
Barbaric, sure, but on a scale of one to mass graves, poison gas and ethnic cleansing, these sorts of considerations can fall by the wayside. No doubt there are soldiers who dealt with the horrors by clinging onto some code of conduct where they’d shoot an insurgent but draw the line at killing a dog (at least a dog that wasn’t actively trying to bite them) but would you hesitate at tossing a grenade into a sniper’s nest because some birds might be nesting there, too?
It’s a time and place where estimations of Right and Wrong can get as muddied as a French field in WWI. Is it worse for a human that understands what’s happening or an animal that doesn’t? Do even the humans understand what’s happening half the time?
But all in all I’d say it’s the traditional pet animals like dogs or the otherwise stereotypically “cute” critters that have the best chance for some modicum of mercy. Rats? Rats don’t have either going for them and tend to be considered pests and disease carriers, besides. No one sticks up for rats, or certainly doesn’t on the front lines. Hell even in peacetime we just about make a hobby of injecting them with cancer-causing chemicals and otherwise being less than copacetic. That they survive at all in a war is probably testament to them being as cussedly determined and adaptable as us. And of course breeding like… well, rats.
10 thoughts on “540 – Trick Hello”
Scarsdale
Called it, she figured he’d do this, if by choice or by zombie voodoo. I’m sure the “friendlier” questioning will start soon, if she doesn’t just kill him out-right. Or just add him to the herd.
Crazyman
Gotcha!
Zombatar
This turn of events is a surprise only to Eustace. And, maybe, Eustace’s subconscious. After all, this way he doesn’t have to actually risk actually attacking Suzie, which gives him a greater chance of survival than actually attacking her. I wonder what he was promised/threatened with?
ConcordBob
Not to nit-pick, but since sights are on target, finger should be on the trigger. Especially this close.
The usual rule is “keep finger straight and off trigger until sights are on target”.
Dr. Norman (not a real doctor)
Not to nit-pick, but since that was current philosophies regarding trigger discipline have evolved.
Of course, it will depend on who you get/got your training from.
Experiments have determined that the fraction of a second to go from finger off the trigger to finger firing when appropriate is insignificant, and the risk of firing unintended is greatly reduced.
Dr. Norman (not a real doctor)
I did the google thing and I believe I saw how you reached this conclusion … but there are two parts to it – One should not omit the second part.
“Trigger Finger Discipline: · The practice of keeping your finger “off the trigger” until your sights are on target AND YOU ARE READY TO DISCHARGE THE FIREARM.” (Caps are my own)
Crazyman
She wants him alive so she can question him; otherwise, he’d already be dead.
ConcordBob
Good discussion on trigger discipline!
His skin is very pale / gray. Is this malnourishment, or has he been poisoned with a mind-control drug? I would have to go back and look a t all various of skin tone.
TKG
On a prior page we discussed what he’s likely got running in his system. I suggested that it’s probably Borrochero (Brugmansia arbora) which is already used by Colombian cartels to eradicate the free will of their victims.
Dr. Norman (not a real doctor)
Now can we satisfy my curiosity? Colt, Smith & Wesson, Ruger, or other timeline variant?