Mercedes Lackey Quotes
If there are going to be people out there making war on other people, don't you think it's a good idea for some of those people to at least follow a code of ethics? Not 'honor' but something you can pin down and be sure of, something with the same rules for everybody.
Lackey, Mercedes. By the Sword. DAW Books, 1991.
He served as a General in both the French and Russian Armies
This is a particularly important quotation about the Civil War. General Sherman is usually credited with the idea of rapid, extensive warfare causing surrender and an end to war. (To some today even he is blamed for this doctrine.) However, the basis of this was in the code of the United States Army that was issued to Sherman and all other officers and approved by the General Staff and President Lincoln. Sherman, was probably the first military officer in modern history to actually implement such a policy but he did not originate it.
This was a precursor of the total war views of William Tecumseh Sherman and Ulysses S. Grant during the American Civil War half a century later.
He was arguing that even if torture might provide useful intelligence not otherwise obtainable, it is not necessary in order for us to succeed in our objectives. Ironically, the military interrogation rules prohibited torture in conformity with US law and treaties but the CIA ignored those restrictions and secretly tortured a number of victims in the War on Terror until their actions became public and they too were required, by executive order to follow the military interrogation guidelines.
Mercedes Ritchie Lackey is an American writer of fantasy novels. Many of her novels and trilogies are interlinked and set in the world of Velgarth, mostly in and around the country of Valdemar. Her Valdemar novels include interaction between human and non-human protagonists with many different cultures and social mores.
