3#
PARTISAN REVIEW
the young boy. Both prisoners continued marching, their pace un–
altered. The boy now stared straight ahead. Smitty's next shot
knocked him flat. The bullet kicked him off
his
feet and his face hit
the ground first and he was dead when he fell. Absolutely still. The
older man kept on walking. "Hey, Smitty, what are you doing?" 1
yelled. The old man went down just like the other, three steps away.
1 went over to see what Smitty had done.
Smitty explained that one of his pals was killed by the ambush.
And so justified the murder. Now, as 1 said, that isn't honest. We
didn't take the killing of our comrades as an outrage. There's not
much chance for grief or outrage when fear
is
dominant. And I've
seen brothers watch brothers die without experiencing grief-brothers,
who in more placid times loved each other, and would have died for
each other. But when death shocks you again and again, love is
atrophied, grief yields, and the only emotion that is nourished is
fear. So in combat you are prepared for any death but your own.
Smitty didn't kill those men out of an affection for his dead buddy.
He wasn't moved by vengeance. Soldiers don't require revenge. They
need only relief from fear. That relief has resulted in some wonderful
massacres.
"Now, Smitty," 1 said, "I know you've had all kinds of exper–
ience twisting the necks of chickens, butchering hogs, shooting quail.
You can't be blamed if you were brought up a butcher. But listen,
friend, some distinctions have to be made. We can't have you
slaughtering men like they were animals raised for market. That
bothers me."
He asked me what 1 was getting at, sincerely puzzled. "Well,
Smitty, frankly you turn my stomach when you go after prisoners
the way you do. 1 know it's hard to remember that they're human
beings. Remember something a little easier. Remember that you're
human yourself."
"Christ, Doc, you talking about krauts?" he asked me incred–
ulously. "You mean it troubles you my knocking off krauts?"
"That's the idea, Smitty."
"I'm surprised at you, Doc, you got any feelings for people
like that."
"I know your instincts are right, Smitty. But you're getting the
habit of murder, friend. You can't take habits like that back to
the States."
