Can’t Kill Anyone

Can’t put them on alert.

Oh, really?

And how does it compare to, say, knocking someone unconscious and their subsequently waking up with an overwhelming urge, nay opportunity, to raise the alarm, whilst you are off, stealthily doing something elsewhere?

Or their managing to make enough noise to draw the attention of someone who is actively investigating their lack of communication (or even absence) in the interim and thus actively listening for the slightest sound they might make?

"Although killing may compromise stealth, the choice between leaving a witness or a corpse is no choice at all."

— Me, explaining to some idiot not only that they were, in fact, an idiot but, furthermore, why I was about to kill them too and make my way on my own.

The human race <sigh>

“They haven't got Brains, any of them, only grey fluff that's blown into their heads by mistake, and they don't Think.”

— Eeyore, The House At Pooh Corner

It’s a bit like the idea of ‘War Crimes’.

I beg your pardon?

You’re at war … actively killing people in the name of whatever excuse you have dreamed up for it, or possibly even legitimately defending the lives of yourself and/or others, it really doesn’t matter … now is not the time to start trying to re-write History to make yourself look good; if you win, whatever you did, it wasn’t a war crime … so if you want to re-write History, just make sure you win at any cost — how doesn’t matter!

No …

Although nuking the planet from orbit may compromise stealth, the choice between leaving any doubt or unquestionable victory is no choice at all.