Should we show mercy to our enemies?

Is it a good idea to show mercy to our enemies? While we’re told it’s vital to be cultured and civilized, and respect international laws, the fact someone’s our enemy means they are likely going to take advantage of us being merciful to them and strike us when we least expect it.

Showing mercy risks us being thought of as easily exploited fools.

By showing mercy to our enemies who want us dead, we are cruel to the victims of our enemies – people who are seeking justice for war crimes, for example. We are saying that the enemies can do what they want and they won’t face justice. That the guilty are better than their victims. That the might-is-right-winner-takes-all mentality is the rule. Realistically speaking, the world is often, not necessarily always, governed by the might-is-right-rule, no matter how much we talk about international law and diplomacy. Military might is what ultimately decides national power (including passport power) and prestige. What shapes the world. Diplomacy without a powerful military backing it up is naive at best and disingenuous at worst.

The most cunning and calculating enemy may resort to begging to be spared when the defeat is on the horizon. This is likely just a tactical begging for mercy to buy time or direct attention elsewhere while the enemy gets ready to strike. Well, God can have a twisted sense of humor and, indeed, He’s going to spare the enemy of Israel but will make the enemy be women who must be the bearers of Israeli culture and children, all the while the enemy bloodline is erased at the same time. Theoretically, the enemy was spared, but it’s likely the merciful fate is actually worse than death. Oh the tragicomedy, as the enemy became a traitor and a coward – by their own definition of these words. No one said showing mercy means no punishment. The enemy took life and in an ironic punishment, God made them be the givers of life to atone for their sins. Sounds like justice to me. If not in this life, then in the next/afterlife.

In this case, I can understand the so-cursed enemy forced to sit in the back of the temple (forced being the key word here), though I still find this archaic custom profoundly perplexing and demeaning.

Point being, even when showing mercy, it can’t be done without conditions, geopolitical or otherwise, because the enemy is going to use that kind of unconditional mercy against us. The enemy must still be reminded of their wrong-doings and guilted or else our mercy is going to be used against us, just like psychopaths improve their mind games by going to a psychotherapist and pretending to ”get better,” while using what they’ve learned from the therapist to manipulate others even better – including the therapist, who’s fooled into believing the psychopath is cured (what does that even mean?)

The strong do what they can and the weak suffer what they must. That saying echoes throughout generations and across continents. Let’s make sure our enemies are the weak links who must suffer what they must. It’s either us or them. When someone’s your enemy, you have three choices: negotiate and appease, eliminate or impose a new identity upon them that’ll either make them the object of ridicule or your asset or both. I remember watching a movie where one of the characters said, ”Capturing a spy is counterproductive. Killing a spy is counterproductive. Making the spy work for us is what we’re after.” That nails it. Of course, when the spy is incorrigible, then any flipping flies out the window.

Showing mercy is a privilege and not an obligation. While in Christianity, in particular, we’re supposed to turn the other cheek (a mistranslation, apparently) and pray for our enemies – we can pray but after our enemies have been taught a lasting lesson, making them think ten times before coming up with new schemes. I’ve never understood this Christian penchant for metaphorical self-flagellation, including statements such as ”money is the root of all evil.”

Judaism has a far more practical, much healthier, approach to mercy and money.