InvisibleBlack
Posts: 865
Joined: 7/24/2009 Status: offline
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"War Crimes" is a very broad category and it takes into account the multiple Hague and Geneva Conventions as well as determinations made at the Nuremberg Trials (and others as well). It includes hundreds of actions which are "war crimes". Regarding drone attacks, however, I believe the issue falls under wanton destruction and/or civilian casualties. The laws of war forbid the wanton destruction of cities, towns and villages, and any devastation not justified by military necessity and, as I recall from the military ethics class I took back in the dim misty past, any military action which causes undue civilian casualties is a "war crime". The clear examples I recall are an officer ordering his unit to call mortar fire on a hotel where a sniper is operating from is a war cime. The level of civilain casualties (hundreds) is not commensurate with the military effort (killing one sniper). Conversely, if two civilian cooks are killed in a bombing run on a military base, that is *not* a war crime - the target was a military target, the civilian personnel on the base should be well aware that they are on a military target and the military objective (an entire base) is clearly far more substantial than the civilian casualties. Unfortunately, life does not offer such clear-cut examples. As it was explained to me, the basic rule which will be used to judge an action is if the level of civilian casualites/destruction is commensurate with the military objective achieved. Using a robot-controlled bomb to blow up twenty civilians to kill one terrorist would then be a war crime. A drone war using inaccurate drones which hit more civilian targets than terrorists would likewise be a war crime. Then again, the Allied bombing of Dresden during WW II would be a war crime and so would Truman's ordering the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The sad reality is - it's only a war crime if you lose. If you win it's a "military necessity".
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Consider the daffodil. And while you're doing that, I'll be over here, looking through your stuff.
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