Couldn't ask for a better statement of the fascist POV than that last one. A soldier has the right to an opinion. A non-combatant does not. Unless of course the non-combatant POV shows proper deference to the soldier, then it is acceptable for him to speak.
Fucking bullshit. Fascist crap.
BSB was not being honest with you, plane. He's bullshitting you. Basically the guy has respect for his former enemies because he's a fucking worm. A man with a gun told to hunt down and kill people whose only offence was to fight for their country's freedom from foreign occupation, be the foreigners French, Japanese or American. That makes him a hired killer, an assassin, an oppressor.
Think about it carefully. What CAN he call his former adversaries? Criminals? Thugs? Cowards? ARE YOU KIDDING? He's gonna admit that he and his buddies were whipped by a pack of cowards and thugs? Furthermore, if THEY (the VC) were assassins and criminals, WTF does that make BSB and his loser comrades in arms? If the VC, who were infinitely more heroic and successful than BSB and his loser cohorts, are unworthy ass-holes, where would that leave BSB and his loser buddies?
He virtually HAS to show respect to the victors, otherwise he appears in his own eyes and everyone else's to be the lesser man. But look at the facts, not at BSB's phony assumed attitudes towards them. The facts are that the VC/NVA were true heroes, facing forces vastly superior in firepower and technology, with full air support (in which they, the VC, were totally lacking) and nevertheless sacrificed their lives in huge numbers to drive the invading foreigners out. BSB and his fellow soldiers, by comparison, were nothing but cowards who attacked villages, women, children and the elderly indiscriminately, tortured prisoners, threw prisoners out of flying helicopters for christ sake, and still lost the war.
Comparing the two forces is like comparing Resistance fighters to Nazi occupation troops. BSB by showing respect to the winners, hopes to blur the distinction, "one fighting man showing respect for another," the international brotherhood of men in arms, etc. (not really in evidence when the Americans were turfing their VC prisoners out of helicopters, unfortunately) and so he thereby becomes equal in stature to the winners. How big of him to be respectful of his betters. HUH? Isn't that what happens in the real world? The winner earns the respect due to a hero, and the loser is . . . well, he's the loser. It isn't "big" of BSB to show respect to the winner. The WORLD shows respect to the winner. And contempt for the loser. All that BSB was attempting to do was wriggle out of the status of "loser" and try to acquire some of the lustre that belongs rightfully to the victors.
