Learn English – English equivalent of Vietnamese “Rather kill mistakenly than to miss an enethe.”

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There was a Vietnamese political leader who said during the war, "Thà giết nhầm còn hơn bỏ sót," which translates to "Rather kill mistakenly than to miss an enemy."

I'm wondering if there is a similar saying to capture the spirit. Sayings like "leave no stones unturned" or "spare no expense" seem a bit casual to me.

Edit: Someone also commented about the phrase "Kill them all; God will sort his own". I think that's also very fitting.

Best Answer

Another English expression that may be on point here is shoot first; ask questions later. Martin Manser, The Facts on File Dictionary of Proverbs (2002) explains the sense of this proverb (which it gives in a slightly different form) as follows:

shoot first and ask questions afterward In certain circumstances—for example, when facing a potentially dangerous person or thing—it is safer not to lose time weighing up the situation before taking action; often used in contexts criticizing such hasty or arbitrary behavior: "It struck her, too, that war seemed to have made the people on that side of the ocean extremely ready with weapon. They would be quite likely to shoot first and ask questions afterward—which would be too late to be helpful" (Mary Roberts Rinehart, The Amazing Interlude, 1918).

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