Many curious & interesting emails on this — too many to post, alas.

This one, from reader Mel Holzgrafe of Reno, NV: “Dear Mr.

Derbyshire—I seem to recall T. E. Lawrence mentioning in ‘The Seven

Pillars of Wisdom’ an Arab leader, the future King Feisal I think,

who, upon intercepting supplies intended for his Turkish enemies,

withheld everything except their tobacco ration. A smoker himself,

evidently Feisal regarded depriving a smoker of his tobacco to be

nothing short of barbarism.”

And this, from a Vietnam vet I’ll leave anonymous (as we always do

unless given specific permission to use a name): “Sadly I never

experienced it as a soldier and suspect this behavior is done by those

away from the battlefield. Nor did I see any predisposition to this

behavior down at company level. The VC supposedly left Vung Tau alone

as it was an R & R location and the NVA left the lights on so the ARVN

could withdraw from FSB Bastogne (where I had served years earlier)

but these actions i believe were self serving.”

Noah Millman chimes in with some thoughtful observations: “I think

it’s significant

that chivalry only obtains between rough equals. …. Remember the

scene in Grand Illusion, when the French

officer is killed by von Stroheim attempting to ‘escape’ from prison,

and then von Stroheim learns it was all a diversion to enable two other

French prisoners to escape – a working-class Frenchman and a Jew? And

von Stroheim – who has behaved with elaborate chivalry towards his

French officer prisoner, a fellow aristocrat – is baffled that his

honorable opponent should have sacrificed himself chivalrously for such

inferior people. Well, if you don’t remember the scene, rent the movie;

it’s a gem. I suspect that this aspect of chivalry obtains between societies as

well. The British fought the Germans with great chivalry in WWI,

considering them an honorable opponent. They fought very differently

against the Boers only a few years earlier…”