Ooh - an actual debate on the Godfather!! It's been so long!!

First of all, Plaw, what makes you think that if my stupid and weak brother would've put my children at risk, I wouldn't have him killed?? I am, after all, Sicilian.

I think that the answer to your question can best be answered by a quote from the book. When Tom Hagen goes up to New England to visit Kay after she leaves Michael, she wants to know why Carlo couldn't be forgiven. He had, after all, stopped beating his wife, worked hard at the job the family gave him, and, by all appearances, had straightened out. And Tom Hagen's answer? "In this world, he could be forgiven." (I'm paraphrasing, by the way).

You cannot compare the two worlds. As Apple correctly said, both Michael and Fredo were raised in that world and had a grasp of the consequences. Why shouldn't Fredo have understood the possible consequences of his actions?? And why wouldn't Michael have acted as he did?? That's what happens to traitors in that world.

As for DC's comments, you are misundertanding my position on Fredo. You see him as weak and slow and someone to be pitied, a "sacrificial lamb". I don't. I see him as an envious and angry man who feels inferior to his younger brother. He is willing to put the family at risk to feed his own ego. IMHO, that makes him VERY dangerous.

As for Fredo trying to smooth things out with Moe Greene, which would not put the family at risk, I'm sure that Sonny believed the same thing when he tried to get some assurances from Sollozzo. And yet look what that did to the family!!