Chivalry today

In the good old days of chivalry, it was standard practice of the victors to let the opposing losing side collect their dead in peace. Not so any more. The Few (only 250,000 or so), the proud (absolutely), the Marines have retorted to burning the body of Talibans, referred to as 'enemy combatants'. While the bodies of these evil doers were burned, the solider taunted them as 'cowardly dogs'.

All this occurred to me as I saw 'Kingdom of Heaven', a choice representation of futuwa and chivalry by the Crudader Knights. Ahhh . . . the good old days.

A more realistic perspective on the Marine is Anthony Swofford’s riveting book on the first Persian Gulf War, Jarhead which has been made into a movie. He describes the US marines as ‘Welcome to the suck’