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Apparently Wikipedia considers Katyn to be genocide

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  • "the law requires every graduate to be an officer, so killing officers is actually killing the intelligentsia"

    wtf-am-i-reading

    Um, maybe if you don't want that to happen, just... don't have that law? This is like conscripting child soldiers and then complaining that your enemy is murdering children. Like, if you're actually fighting a truly desperate conflict against a genocidal foe, like the Soviets against the Nazis, some desperate measures can be justified, but this is interwar Poland we're talking about here.

    We've fully entered the "killing soldiers is actually genocide" phase of rhetoric (except when Western countries actually kill civilians, that's just regrettable but unavoidable collateral damage).

    • We've fully entered the "killing soldiers is actually genocide" phase of rhetoric

      Pretty sure that's actually part of the Black Book of Communism.

    • Um, maybe if you don't want that to happen, just... don't have that law? This is like conscripting child soldiers and then complaining that your enemy is murdering children.

      Egh, this comparison seems a bit iffy... (Context: look at Israeli rumours about child soldiers in Gaza, and thus justifying killing children)

      You could put in women there and that makes sense, while not being as problematic....

      Other than that, I agree somewhat... though I believe the Soviets aren't the perpetrators...

      • Egh, this comparison seems a bit iffy...

        I sort of agree, but that's why I added the bit afterwards about desperate measures - Gazans are in exactly such a situation, fighting a foe that openly declares its intention to exterminate them. In such circumstances, a lot of things are justifiable that otherwise wouldn't be. The various rules of war can be useful in "normal" conflicts where a negotiated settlement can be reached, and following those rules can limit escalation and thus minimize damage to all parties involved, but if one side seeks to completely slaughter the other, that framework kind of falls apart - things have already escalated to one of the highest levels possible.

        Poland was, until the Nazi invasion, not fighting a genocidal foe, and in fact had been the aggressor in their war against the Soviets, had participated in the partition of Czechoslovakia, and had some pretty wild expansionist ideas. So their case is rather different.

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