In the 17th century, when Susanna Centlivre scripted her prophetic metaphor for her play “Love at a Venture,” she had no clue that her fateful words “All policy’s allowed in war and love” would echo forever in the annals of time.

Now, three centuries later, it’s timely to ask ourselves, is “all’s fair in love” a license to mentally, physically or sexually abuse spouses, children, relatives and friends?”

Is “all fair in war” a license to assassinate/execute with drones? Drones are used for “targeted killing,” a government-military euphemism for execution without benefit of judge, jury or due-process but, media sources say, “always with the approval of the president.”

“Targeted killing” always causes collateral damage, be it property or lives (innocents unlucky enough to be in close proximity to the target). “Collateral damage” is another government-sanitized euphonism.

Acting out on “all’s fair in love and war,” Susanna may have stumbled onto something that our politicians have yet to learn: “There are no round trip tickets for a ride on the slippery slope to hell.”

Harvey Thibodeau

Pinehurst