Quote Originally Posted by Crocodile
Quote Originally Posted by Ramil
Luckily I don't have such experience, but still I don't think that even a seasoned soldier would act like this. Senses go numb, of course, but I doubt that all military men are blood-thirsty maniacs.
I'm really not enjoying talking about that f**** cr@p, so I would only mention one obvious thing and I would prefer to discuss this no more. You see, if the peaceful villagers have contacts with partisans, once you leave the village, the partisans would very soon know you were there. And they would follow you. And attack at the moment you expect the least. That is one of the rule of that f***** cr@p. So, from the moment you leave you should expect that to happen. Do you have the guts?
Let me check if I got this right: BEFORE you enter the village where there may be 'partisans' you KNOW all that you've just said. You know that once you've entered there will be no other choice than either to find these 'partisans' or exterminate all population. Let's suppose that you wouldn't find partisans (they're off somewhere... raiding your HQ for example). You kill everyone in the village, but this won't hide the fact that you've been there and you should expect a retaliation attempt anyway. It appears that the only possible 'human' and 'tactical' choice would be not to enter the village but lay an ambush nearby and wait for the real enemy. Of course if such means are necessary then why bother with formalities? Why not call an airstrike and level the village to the ground?

Quote Originally Posted by Crocodile
Quote Originally Posted by Ramil
Maybe it was only I who understood this story this way. But in my opinion the sergeant failed to satifsy the criteria of being human in robot's mind.
Yes, I agree with your interpretation of the story. Provided as-is it leaves a lot of room for the reader to perceive the shleps as pure victims. But what I said was the reality is often different. The one-side interpretation is adequate when the story is open-ended (from both sides).
The author leaves it as it is. Maybe he thought it would be enough or his fantasy had failed him or there was something else, who knows. But I assume that everything that needed to be said is said in the story and the rest is irrelevant.