> Many nations that have been invaded over the years kill their traitors.
> Innocents are killed and maimed...and scorched earth? What of it?
>
> It was one of the factors that broke the Nazi backbone in WWII Russia.
>
Ummmm....
well actually, I would beg to differ with this assessment of the Russian success in WWII, I think that the evidence is highly ambiguous as to whether their policies contributed to, or hampered their success against the Axis armies.
Russian and Ukrainian desertions to the Axis army were rampant.
And the Soviet policy of considering you a traitor even if you were taken prisoner made it almost impossible for people to return to fight on the Soviet side...if they had the possibility to escape back.
By the end of the battles of Stalingrad, a significant portion of the 'German' armies were Russian and Ukrainian 'Hiwis'. For instance, 780 Russians, nearly half the force of the Wehrmacht's 297th infantry division in the southern tip of the 'Kessel' fought against the Soviet military. (p.353 "Stalingrad" Antony Beevor).
They knew that even if they were prisoners, they would be shot as traitors by the Russians for even being alive and caught inside the Kessel.
Does that sound like these were the factors that broke the Nazi backbone in WWII...sounds kinda like it was calcium for the backbone of the Nazis to me...
> It's a tried and true strategy, and the Iraqi resistance is entitled
> to use it whether Parenti thinks it sucks... or not.
>
> Civilians die in wars... sometimes stupidly.
>
> I think Christian Parenti's comments above exemplify the reason
> why intellectuals are so often the first to be lined up and shot...