SCALIA: "Mere factual innocence is no reason not to carry out a death sentence properly reached."

[malthaussen]

25. In Guy Sajer's book, The Forgotten Soldier, is an unforgettable vignette:

Sajer was a soldier in the German Grossdeutschland division for most of the 2nd world war (we'll leave aside the disputes raised about his authority as irrelevant to the tale at hand). Towards the end, the division had substantial logistical problems, and was completely disorganized, broken up, and in chaos. Sajer and his mates, having not eaten for several days, came upon a broken-down supply truck (from their own division, by coincidence), and helped themselves. But as they were supplying themselves, the German equivalent of the M.P.s came along, and Sajer and the boys ran into the woods, except for one unlucky comrade who was collared by the coppers. Who immediately hanged him for looting, while the rest of the squad watched from the woods.

Picture it. You're a group of heavily-armed soldiers in the final stages of a military collapse, starving and scared and wounded, and one of your friends is executed by a couple of rear-echelon jokers whose only concern is to enforce the strict laws against looting -- and you and your comrades do nothing to stop it. Can it be imagined, if that had been a U.S. unit, if there would have been any other result than a couple of dead M.P.s? But Sajer and his friends did nothing, because ordnung ist alles.

That is either more admirable than I am capable of conceiving, or very, very cowardly and dumb.

-- Mal