Clemency abuse

https://www.warhistoryonline.com/featured/bloodiest-medieval-war-fought-bucket.html

Here's one way to abuse clemency. 'To make his edict stick, the pope offered indulgences to anyone who successfully attacked Bonacolsi and/or his property. Indulgences were a guarantee that sins were either forgiven or lightened to the extent that one didn't have to burn in hell. Not even for the sin of murder.'

Tom Kratman, no dummy he, has previously observed in one of his SF novels (Caliphate, IIRC) that an (evil, psychotic, awful) President could use the Presidential pardoning power in just such a way. Spoiler alert: that Presidency doesn't turn out well for the U.S., but it turns out even worse for Iran.

--
If I esteem mankind to be in error, shall I bear them down? No. I will lift them up, and in their own way too, if I cannot persuade them my way is better; and I will not seek to compel any man to believe as I do, only by the force of reasoning, for truth will cut its own way.

"Thou shalt love thy wife with all thy heart, and shalt cleave unto her and none else."

Kipling

I love Kipling.

http://www.kiplingsociety.co.uk/poems_copybook.htm

As I pass through my incarnations

In every age and race,

I make my proper prostrations

To the Gods of the Market Place.

Peering through reverent fingers

I watch them flourish and fall,

And the Gods of the Copybook Headings,

I notice, outlast them all.

We were living in trees when they met us.

They showed us each in turn

That Water would certainly wet us,

As Fire would certainly burn:

But we found them lacking in Uplift,

Vision and Breadth of Mind,

So we left them to teach the Gorillas

While we followed the March of Mankind.

We moved as the Spirit listed.

They never altered their pace,

Being neither cloud nor wind-borne

Like the Gods of the Market Place,

But they always caught up with our progress,

And presently word would come

That a tribe had been wiped off its icefield,

Or the lights had gone out in Rome.

With the Hopes that our World is built on

They were utterly out of touch,

They denied that the Moon was Stilton;

They denied she was even Dutch;

They denied that Wishes were Horses;

They denied that a Pig had Wings;

So we worshipped the Gods of the Market

Who promised these beautiful things.

When the Cambrian measures were forming,

They promised perpetual peace.

They swore, if we gave them our weapons,

That the wars of the tribes would cease.

But when we disarmed They sold us

And delivered us bound to our foe,

And the Gods of the Copybook Headings said:

"Stick to the Devil you know."

On the first Feminian Sandstones

We were promised the Fuller Life

(Which started by loving our neighbour

And ended by loving his wife)

Till our women had no more children

And the men lost reason and faith,

And the Gods of the Copybook Headings said:

"The Wages of Sin is Death."

In the Carboniferous Epoch

We were promised abundance for all,

By robbing selected Peter

To pay for collective Paul;

But, though we had plenty of money,

There was nothing our money could buy,

And the Gods of the Copybook Headings said:

"If you don't work you die."

Then the Gods of the Market tumbled,

And their smooth-tongued wizards withdrew

And the hearts of the meanest were humbled

And began to believe it was true

That All is not Gold that Glitters,

And Two and Two make Four

And the Gods of the Copybook Headings

Limped up to explain it once more.

As it will be in the future,

It was at the birth of Man

There are only four things certain

Since Social Progress began.

That the Dog returns to his Vomit

And the Sow returns to her Mire,

And the burnt Fool's bandaged finger

Goes wabbling back to the Fire;

And that after this is accomplished,

And the brave new world begins

When all men are paid for existing

And no man must pay for his sins,

As surely as Water will wet us,

As surely as Fire will burn,

The Gods of the Copybook Headings

With terror and slaughter return!

--

If I esteem mankind to be in error, shall I bear them down? No. I will lift them up, and in their own way too, if I cannot persuade them my way is better; and I will not seek to compel any man to believe as I do, only by the force of reasoning, for truth will cut its own way.

"Thou shalt love thy wife with all thy heart, and shalt cleave unto her and none else."