You're story does not show what you think it shows. Disproportionate response works. Executing every fighting age male among your enemies works. That is quite the opposite of mercy.
It show that instead of slinking off after 1/6, the right should have retaliated one thousand fold. Instead they showed mercy to the left, as always, and the left continued on.
Disproportionate response only works temporarily, only when applied arbitrarily (to make your actions unpredictable), and only when applied against a small response. Make it systemic and you have to basically kill absolutely everyone, or you will guarantee a permanent state of war levied against you.
Disproportionate force is simply a force multiplier. It's a weapon. It doesn't win you the war long term. Your other example (executing every fighting age male), is a genocide that assumes you've already won.
My point about Mercy is that it is our weapon after we see an individual has repented. From a tactical standpoint, mercy is about taking someone out of the fight as permanently as if they had been killed, while also being able to use them as a propaganda weapon to guarantee further surrenders.
You're story does not show what you think it shows. Disproportionate response works. Executing every fighting age male among your enemies works. That is quite the opposite of mercy.
It show that instead of slinking off after 1/6, the right should have retaliated one thousand fold. Instead they showed mercy to the left, as always, and the left continued on.
Disproportionate response only works temporarily, only when applied arbitrarily (to make your actions unpredictable), and only when applied against a small response. Make it systemic and you have to basically kill absolutely everyone, or you will guarantee a permanent state of war levied against you.
Disproportionate force is simply a force multiplier. It's a weapon. It doesn't win you the war long term. Your other example (executing every fighting age male), is a genocide that assumes you've already won.
My point about Mercy is that it is our weapon after we see an individual has repented. From a tactical standpoint, mercy is about taking someone out of the fight as permanently as if they had been killed, while also being able to use them as a propaganda weapon to guarantee further surrenders.