It's been a warm day here, and the evening is not cold - I'm able to sit up and type this in a polo shirt.
The morning followed its usual pattern of breakfast, feeding the orphan calf, walking the dog, getting the mail and checking for jobs. This last has taken on an added level of meaning with the government talking about another welfare crackdown. I'll have more to say on this in another post, because I suspect the proposals put forward will actually make it harder for unemployed people (like me) to get any sort of work. As things stand, I was pleased to see this ad in yesterday's paper and sent off an application in a heartbeat.
I spent the afternoon loading the truck for the old boy to take to the other place tomorrow, and then
went into town to the Blood Bank. As always, it was rewarding. Sadly, the only volunteer role there is making tea for people who've just donated, which is a bit trivial even for me. My only other errand in town was to buy a pineapple, since the old boy likes that fruit fresh and Lord knows more fresh fruit won't hurt him.
I've been reading Antony Beevor's The Fall of Berlin 1945, which seems fairly topical given the current battle for Mosul. I'll talk about it more when I review it, but something that strikes me is the difficulty of ascribing blame. On one hand, the Third Reich certainly dragged the war out when it was clear their cause was lost. I have a vague recollection that this is a breach of the laws of war. On the other hand, the Red Army's discipline was so lax that one can say they used rape as a weapon, effectively by default; in addition, their handling of prisoners fairly often included executing SS members on the spot. In which case, perhaps the Wehrmacht was justified in dragging out the war.
This has been on my mind since an apparent proposal that the laws of war be waived in relation to Mosul. The experience of 1945 says to me that the situation in that city must be chaotic on any measure, with ever increasing circles of crime and reprisal. The laws of war have value in that context, not because they'll always be enforceable, but simply to make sense of the chaos.
Nuremberg Courtroom
Image from here
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