saber964 wrote:XofDallas wrote:Ok, this one may have been discussed before. It stems from the thought that a lot of people now have seen first-hand the restraint Charis has exercised during its campaigns. Others have witnessed direct lies on the part of the Church and the Inquisition in particular. Examples:
1. The platoon that learned a Scheulerite had shot their Lieutenant in the head from behind;
2. The men attempting to take Princess Irys at her lodging;
3. The men seeing Mabb work (those he didn't kill);
4. Those at Ferayd when the Charisans stormed the waterfront;
These men have got to at least strongly suspect the Inquisition is lying about a lot of things. Yet, we've never seen or heard anything from them again, nor have we seen or heard anything about how they're being treated.
After the Battle of Midway, the Japanese invaded a couple of the Aleutian Islands (originally, this portion of the operation was to be only a feint), and claimed a great victor to their people, while those defeated at Midway were actually quarantined and all information concerning them was blacked out as soon as they reached a Japanese-controlled port.
I wonder what happened to these people.
If you're referencing the IJN in the aftermath of Midway. All wounded survivors were sent to special hospitals overseen by the Kempi Tai (Japanese Military Secret Police) most serious cases were not released until 1944-5, lightly wounded were sent to farthest edges of the empire like Java and New Guinea. The rest were sent to the Solomon's and were never allowed rotation home.
FYI the Kempi Tai were more brutal then the Gestapo (actually made the Gestapo look like Girl Scouts). E.g. while building the Yamato a single page of the plans went missing the Kempi Tai's investigation killed 195 of 200 ship designers and workers. The missing page turned up during the investigation stuck to another page but the Kempi Tai kept investigating anyway.
Wow, and I thought the
Inquisition was evil! On the other hand, the Kempi Tai didn't put people to the Question, or through the indescribable tortures of the Punishment of Schueler.
All but one of the examples cited happened in the Kingdom of Delferahk, which for all we know is neutral in the jihad. The only exception is the men Dialydd Mabb didn't kill, who aren't likely to consider him merciful after seeing the inquisitors around them shot, or finding their commander's throats cut in the barracks in the morning. They undoubtedly find his brand of justice quite
focused and are certainly relieved that he didn't target
them when he could have, but dead is dead, and they saw the gory results.
There are tens of thousands of wounded and captured POWs in the allies' hands from the Battle of the Kyplyngyr, and over thirty thousand were captured in LAMA. Those Dohlaran (and some Desnairan) survivors have seen firsthand the mercy shown by the "heretics," who cared for them as if they were their own troops, following to the letter the Book and spirit of Pasquale. Those POWs also realize that if their roles had been reversed, the men (and possibly women) who cared for them would have been tortured to death!
In some instances the POWs saw the Charisians stop Siddarmarkans from massacring them. They
literally saw the allies facing off against each other with the Charisians arguing to spare their lives even though the CoGA's troops had invaded Siddarmark, pillaged and massacred its citizens, occupied its territory, and fought and killed many of those same Charisian troops. Who is on God's side indeed?
It's too bad that Safehold doesn't seem to have the concept of parole - but even it does, parole isn't honored during a jihad, since no promise made to a heretic is considered binding. Otherwise the allies could return the Dohlaran survivors to Ahlverez with the assurance that that they would never take up arms against the allies again. The former POW's accounts of the excellent medical care they received, the full rations, and their repatriation would spread like wildfire! How could the heretics who fight on the side of Shan-Wei be so merciful when Mother Church would torture and execute every one of them, and they
know it? Which side is truly on the side of God?
How long will it take soldiers to begin to feel ashamed for the atrocities being committed in Siddarmark, especially in the prison camps? Most of Safehold already knows the camps exist, because Mab mentioned them in his letter to Clyntahn, which was posted across the planet by OWL in his broadsheets. Details about the camps and what goes on there will undoubtedly appear in OWL's broadsheets as soon as the first camp is "discovered" and a reasonable amount of time for the information to disseminate to the nearest enemy-held territory passes by, unless a seijin steps in to speed up the flow of information. From there it will spread throughout Safehold.
The populace will doubtlessly feel
very proud that so many civilians, most of them completely
innocent of the charges of heresy leveled against them, and many of them staunch
Temple Loyalists, have been incarcerated, starved, tortured, murdered, and often worked to death. And if an inquisitor tried to intervene, he was put to the Punishment!
Desnair is already out of the war. How will the nobility react when tens of thousands of their fathers, husbands, and sons who they thought were dead, but were merely wounded, starving, or captured, are returned to them hale and hearty? (Ignoring the nasty fights for succession that are going to result because their heirs have already inherited their positions!)
Allowing POWs to return home would be a nightmare for Clyntahn and might gut support for the jihad. He can't order the execution of all POWs - the armies involved would ignore the order and probably kill the inquisitor(s) who delivered the ultimatum. That would result in Dohlar and Desnair withdrawing from the jihad without the EoC firing a shot. Clyntahn isn't
that stupid, but he might order the internment of returning POWs. (Which would likely be ignored as well!)
We have textev from LaMA that Desnair is already out of the war, so the EoC could probably return their POWs now without having to worry about facing them across the field of battle again.
Perhaps OWL's broadsheets could list the names of the Dohlaran POWs on the walls of their
hometowns! That would cause their families to demand that the
current Dohlaran government do something to get their sons, husbands, and fathers back, and will turn tens of thousands of civilians against the jihad. Dangling the return of all Dohlaran POWs will be a valuable bargaining chip once the KH VIIs arrive for their long-destined visit to Gorath, and Dohlar's
new government sues for peace...
(Ok, I skipped a few steps there, but we can read the writing on the wall. King Ronald has to go, and Gorath may become a smoking crater to drive home the point that YOU DO NOT TURN CHARISIAN POWs OVER TO THE INQUISITION, AND YOU BASTARDS DID IT TWICE!)
Now back to our regularly scheduled analysis...
As Cayleb has noted, kindness is a weapon that Clyntahn doesn't understand, and repatriating the Dohlaran and Desnairan POWs could turn two countries against the Inquisition, against the jihad, and against the Go4. If the EoC can figure out a way to repatriate the POWs it holds without them being slaughtered, interred, or sent back to the front to fight again, doing so would gut the jihad and might remove Dohlar and Desnair from the war once and for all!
Of course Harchong won't want their POWs back, which we'll soon find out! Well, not exactly
soon, but probably during ATSOT...
