RULES OF WAR

porchwise said...

The Geneva convention was held so countries could conduct "humane" wars so the premise was false from the get go. There is no such thing as a "humane" war. War is an atrocity and when men decide to tear one another up, humanity goes out the window. It's one reason the Veep wants to loosen up the 'torture of prisoners' tenet of the Geneva Convention

Well, as I had said before, I grew up in a military family. I've seen just about every war movie ever made, and it wasn't until I was in high school or college that I found out through my father and teacher, professors and other vets, that there are rules to war.

I had believed that you killed the enemy by any means possible. Then one of my professors, who had went into the military prior to getting his PH.D. said that truly you want in injure your enemy, because a dead soldier is just left behind, but an injured one takes people to carry him from the battlefield, takes people to care for him, ties up their resources.

As for weapons, it wasn't until the moive Platoon came out that I found out shotguns were illegal on the battlefield. They were considered inhumane. And yet, they used fragmentation gernades and cluster bombs and even claymore mines.

So, we blow arms and legs off soldiers on the battlefield, but once they are prisoners of war, we treat the humanely, inspite of the fact that the opposing army treats our prisoners as punching bags and target practice.