What lesson can we take from the character Weatherby? John shot him, but later it is revealed that he killed children in the war.

In Chapter Thirteen, John wants to remember that he was brave during the events at Thuan Yen, but he admits that to crawling away and hiding. He contributes the shooting of Weatherby to the heat of a battle and fear for his own life, but he aslo notes that Weatherby was smiling at him when he called him "Sorcerer." The author writes that "John shot him
anyway," which infers that John knew who he was before he pulled the trigger, and it seems that John's action might have been prompted by the atrocities he'd just seen his own men commit. As readers, we are left to make our own judgements about the day's events, and the way the overt violence effected the men, their actions, and the way in which they saw the events as they unfolded.