Is it war? Is it murder?

When is it war and when is it murder? There is an area which overlaps the two. Defining the two is not always going to be easy. Why am I asking this? Recently reported on the news is that the State has decided to prosecute Vlok and van der Merwe for attempted murder of Chikane. When was this? During the time that S.A. was at war against the ANC. The ANC were laying bombs and killing civilians. The S.A. government were trying to prevent this and known ANC activists were targeted. Was the ANC guiltless because they were trying to overthrow a corrupt government? Surely then the S.A. government was guiltless because they were resisting their downfall. They saw themselves as the democratic government of the day, notwithstanding how we might feel about apartheid now.

This is a different scenario to genocide with the likes of Charles Taylor of Liberia and many others, some in Bosnia and surrounding countries. I am not Chikane so I might have a different feeling about the matter if I were him. But then I would have been on the other side of the government. Did I fight for S.A.? No, however I have fought for Rhodesia and I wonder to what lengths I would have gone, in similar circumstances, had I needed to.

Sure, one can say arrest and charge and take the matter to court. In war this is not always an option. People are killed in war. Kill or be killed. Did I ever try to arrest the terrorists we were fighting? Our orders, and it was accepted as such, was that you go out an engage the enemy and kill them. Any that survive you bring back. We were never told to bring them back and try not kill any. Only in special operations, that elite forces like Selous Scouts and the SAS were engaged in, were expected to bring in enemy officers for intelligence purposes. The foot soldier? Kill them.

Do I approve of Vlok and van der Merwe. That is neither here nor there. I think that when you are being patriotic to your country a person will go to great lengths to protect it and guerilla warfare unfortunately has ill-defined labels as who is the enemy. That is why guerilla warfare is engaged in; to make it difficult to find the enemy. Which means the opposing side, in this case the S.A. government, has to try and decide and identify the enemy and do what enemies do in war; kill.

That's why I hate war. When will there ever be peace. Definitley not until the Lord arrives that's for sure.