Men of Paratge. Warriors with honor, courtesy, respect.  Return to the Middle Ages for, perhaps, Western civilization's last great ParatgeMan of his culture and religion-- Richard the Lionheart.  When giving quarter is noble not weakness.

And his antagonist?  A Paratgeman of his culture and religion, Saladin. In 1192, when the Popes ill-fated Crusades for riches had failed, a truce was arranged.  See http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/1192peace.asp.  Free passage for pilgrims, many other accommodations from Saladin, the victor.

Add to Richard the name of the noble English William Marshal.

And see how two cultures, western Christian of sorts; and more eastern Islamic, produced heroes with morality.  Even with all the time passing, Saladin's stature remains high:  see http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/Saladin.htm

What has happened since, so that dogma and creeds, taught by those profiting from them, supersede the greatest human attribute, right from wrong. Warfare may be inevitable when clashes and defenses of rights and property arise to the level of extremes, but its conduct is still voluntary.  See England's Richard against the Muslim Saladin at  http://worldwar1worldwar2.blogspot.com/2009/12/paratge-in-warfare-two-jerusalem.html.  Even the BBC nods in Saladin's direction, as the more noble, in that Richard the Lionheart could be more easily swayed against the moral code, See http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00nddb5ble. There are more stories of Saladin's extra-curricular equities, than for Richard, is that so?


In current, not old Crusader terms (where the east usually out-moraled the west in terms of slaughter) paratge emerges again, as it should.

No genocide works completely.  Some vestige remains, to be nurtured, flower again in some way.  See http://joyofequivocating.blogspot.com/2009/12/duty-to-paratge-maaht-natural-order.html.  It shows itself any time profits challenge sustainable ecosystems, or varying cultures.  And, these days, loses because the money and corporations have no interest in balance or "curtesie," is that so.  With the devastation of Cathar culture, for example, in the southwest of France, the Languedoc, so complete in the 13th Century, what can really be known of it.  See http://www.dhaxem.com/data/handt/Cathar_Honour.pdf

Saladin:  seeing Richard unhorsed, stopped the presses until Richard was provided another horse.  Saladin: a Christian woman in Palestine complaining that her babe had been stolen by Muslims.  Saladin stops the presses, until the baby is found and returned.  Paratge.  Saladin, offering Christians in Jerusalem, when the city had been taken back by the Muslims, passage out.  But the Christians, so-called, in taking Jerusalem in an earlier Crusade, slaughtering all within.  No paratge. Later Crusades, hyped up Crusaders attacking even Christian cities.  No paratge.

Still, the concept remains.

Presidential debates.  Can paratge matter.  Is paratge true statesmanship. Richard the Lionheart had it.  Saladin had it.  They were on opposite sides.  Their followers lost their best opportunity to forge a lasting co-existence by abandoning medieval Paratge.  Thank you dogma on both sides. Those you say you save, you destroy, is that so? See http://www.midi-france.info/190403_paratge.htm

Who else in history has paratge?  Jesus, of course.  But who pays attention to him. Martin Luther King?  Go to other cultures.  They are recognizable.  Obama?  Yes.  Restraint. Respect. That is not weakness. That is wisdom in the setting.  Rethink it?  Sure.  But as a first response, admirable.