Has You Bean Mexicuted

You are about to be executed, what is your last meal, and what crime did you commit?

Wow, that is a terrible scenario for me to postulate a hypothetical scenario. So I am about to be executed and what crime did I commit well, I assassinated Trump. For my last meal I would want prime rib medium rare lobster and crab, for dessert chocolate pie, and a Dr. Pepper.In reality I am a pacifist and I don’t believe in the death penalty.

Have you ever witnessed someone get executed?

I’m thankful I haven’t, but I had an account by an Englishman who experienced this in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Public beheadings by sword are common, and the place for this is nicknamed “Chop chop square”. There is a drain in the middle so the blood is evacuated. Drains are not so common in the country, because rainfall is a rare thing.The guy who shared his experience with me was an engineer on a working contract (there are no tourist visas in KSA, save for pilgrimage to Mecca). He joined a group of loutish colleagues who thought a public beheading was the attraction to see. He said the crowd was so big he could actually not really see. But what struck him was the atmosphere, that he found very unsettling, and which he described as halfway between a car accident and a soccer match. Many people stared with horrified glances, while many others were vociferating. This sounded actually quite similar to depictions that were made of executions in 19th century Europe, when they were still public.If you want to see an execution, there are plenty of videos on the Internet. The main providers are KSA, ISIS and Iran (hangings). Platforms like YouTube reject the graphic ones, but if you look for them, you’ll find them alright. I never pushed curiosity that far, I think it would leave a stain on my mind.

Would Rommel have been executed by the Allies had he survived the war?

No. Heinz Guderian fought far more brutally and had a somewhat more questionable record in treating prisoners of war (and was arguably a superior flag officer) and he survived not only to tell the tale, but to meet with his former enemies and regale them with battlefield stories. He was a known antisemite, but in the old Kaiserliche sense (that it was okay to hate Jews) not in the Hitlerian sense (that it was okay to eradicate the Jews). The stories of his upstanding hatred of Hitler and the Nazis are greatly exaggerated.Guderian was cast in the iron mold of "state within the state" generals that operated with relative immunity from politicians and believed he had more latitude than he did. At first relieved for pressing too aggressively into France [1] , he was re-instated and fought gallantly until he was captured by allies. Like most of his contemporaries who behaved within acceptable guidelines for the era, he was released from prison and lived a long life.Footnotes[1] Amazon.com: The Storm of War: A New History of the Second World War eBook: Andrew Roberts: Kindle Store

You are Robb Stark, and Eddard Stark has just been executed. How do you win the War of the Five Kings?

I would do everything basically the same as Robb, except:Wouldn’t be King in the North. Declare that we are fighting to avenge Ned and destroy the Lannisters, not to break away from the Seven Kingdoms. So victory conditions would be: kill Joffrey, kill Cersei (preferably), and ultimately remove the Lannisters from power.Wouldn’t send Theon to the Iron Islands. Either disregard them, or send a real diplomatWouldn’t go to grandfather’s funeral. Obviously there is a lot of sentimental value in attending, but it ruined Robb’s war plan and march south and drew him WAY far east, which is ultimately what enabled the Lannisters to regroup and defend KL.Following the Battle of Oxcross, I would lay seige to Casterly Rock. This would split the Lannisters in half, and force them to decide between keeping Casterly Rock or defending King’s Landing. Either way they lose a stronghold and much of their forces. If they return to Casterly Rock, I either face them in the field (solid choice given Robb’s battle prowess and prior victories) or withdraw a bit, then continue to seige while Stannis takes KL. Wait for word from Stannis on what to do with the Lannisters (should I expect support from them, should I withdraw, etc.)If I wasn’t going to go solo, I would declare for Stannis and join up with his army and destroy the Lannisters at King’s Landing, then just return as Warden of the North with Stannis as the King.Alternatively, if I decide that the North’s independence is the ultimate victory, I would take the Twins, adequately defend it, and leave it at that. Have soldiers on reserve to reinforce it in the event of the South trying to conquer it (and the North) again, but essentially conquer everything down to the Twins and then return to Winterfell.My quick/rough thoughts.

Do you think Emperor Hirohito should have been executed or at least dethroned or exiled?

Absolutely not. Whatever your opinions are on his culpability for war crimes and general mistreatment of persons under Imperial Japan and technically in his name, he was far too useful to execute.State Shinto had been around since the Meiji Restoration in the 1860s. Under State Shinto, the emperor was the son of the sun goddess Amaterasu. In Japan, he was literally revered as a god.Obviously, after the war the emperor was un-deified as per the State Shinto Directive of 1945, but killing him would have been idiotic. The surrender of Japan was hugely helped by Hirohito’s address to the nation regarding the surrender. Remember what happened during the Battle of Saipan - lots of the locals chose to take their own lives rather than surrender, even noncombatants. Hirohito’s address helped people accept the surrender.This all might seem very silly, but keep in mind that you were not raised within this environment. There are tons of stories of Japanese soldiers who got marooned somewhere due to the general poor logistics of the Japanese army and believed for years that the war was still going on. Hiroo Onoda is probably the most famous of these: Hiroo Onoda - Wikipedia He spent 29 years as a holdout in the Philippines until somebody managed to find his old commander so the commander could come out and formally release him from duty. He would not give up otherwise.The Japanese were serious about this.Killing the emperor would have been about the dumbest thing on the planet to do.