ProjectAngel said:LawL LawL said:
Your romantic view on war is extremely amusing. Do you know why the Geneva Convention was even invented?
"It all began in June 1859, when a merchant named Henry Dunant was traveling through the war-ravaged plain of Normandia, north of Italia, after the battle of Solferino. Seeing thousands of wounded soldiers left dying in the mercy of fate, he appealed to the local inhabitants to come and help, insisting that combatants from both sides should be taken care of. There and then it crossed the Dunant's mind an idea about the creation of the Red Cross;. so he decided to tell the world about experienced horrors of war and wrote a book "A memory of Solferino", let it be mentioned here that with this work he initiated the news reports' epoch. In his book, published in 1862, he made two solemn appeals; firstly, for relief societies to be formed in the peacetime with nurses who would be ready to care for the wounded in wartime. Secondly, for these volunteers, who would be called upon to assist the military medical services, to be recognized and protected through an international agreement. These ideas soon materialized in the creation of the "International Committee for Relief to the Wounded", which later became the International Committee of the Red Cross."
http://www.redcross.lv/en/conventions.htm
That's how people were treated. Left to die on the battlefield, friend and foe alike. I think this goes to prove the mentality of those conducting these wars. The value of their own men was worthless so imagine how they saw the enemy.
Most armies at the time were made up of criminals... People with a lack of morals as it is. Throw them into a warzone after filling their uneducated, (only the rich could afford an education at the time,) heads with propaganda and you will see what happens. This has happened throughout the ages and continues to this day. You think they tell soldiers out in Afghanistan that if they get into a spot of bother then it's best to surrender? Or do you think they tell them that this is to be avoided at all costs because they will be tortured and then murdered. Point me to cases of where an army initiated in battle and then half of them surrendered mid-battle while the rest fought on. I doubt there is any. They either all surrendered, (and most of the time this would happen without any battle taking place,) or they broke and fled.
As for my comments on the "silly locals" that one seemed to go totally over your head.
If you're capable of actually producing an intelligent reply, why bother with the "silly locals" remark in the first place.
Also, during the Napoleonic wars and times prior, there was a sense of "chivalry" or "honour", though this didn't apply to peasants/serfs/lower class, the aristocracy stuck to it, hence the lack of major pitched battles seeing knights and nobles charging eachother during the Middle Ages.
I used a romantic view of it to see how you would respond, as its very obvious very few battles saw much decency. However, people weren't always treated as such once wounded on the battle field. If you need examples, look at Roman, Macedonian, and other ancient empires, and the surgeons who served in their armies. Furthermore, you didn't really reply very decisively, as I had said "...that rules weren't needed because..." and you mentioning the Geneva Convention also states that it only started AFTER people saw the horrors of wars of that period, but wars prior to that had never seen such devastation, and armies were never as large prior to "levee en masse." Wars were always brutal affairs, thats what happens when you try to kill other people and both sides have armies, but the difference between pre-levee en masse and post-levee en masse was simply that armies became so large, and so zealous and fuelled by Nationalism, regard for human life hit an all time low, and hasn't really risen since then.
Also, you say there were never mid battle surrenders? No name comes to mind, but I vaguely recall French Knights/Nobles surrendering during the Hundred Years War, initally accepted by the English, they were massacred later due to the fear of being freed by other French troops in the area. But the latter part of that is besides the point, which is that surrendering soldiers, who had taken part in combat, were accepted as prisoners, while not far from them allies were still active combatants.
Mind you the Geneva Convention was established, but never fully upheld during any given armed conflict, as the obvious chaos in a war, or simply the will to win it, was enough for one, and often both sides to just toss the
Now, one thing to sweep everything away, this is a game, when people implement rules and they also happen to own the server you're playing on, its best you follow those rules