An irony about humanity is that while we tend to slaughter one another in barbaric wars, we are directed, as supposedly civilized creatures, to follow certain rules on the killing fields.
In meetings from the Hague to Geneva dating from early in the last century, guidelines have developed not on whether we should kill, but on our deportment as we go about it.
This has been especially relevant for the past few years as accusations of war crimes rose over military action in the Russian-Ukrainian and Israeli-Hamas wars.
So what are the restrictions? Under international law, the no-nos are many, and you can make up your own mind whether contemporary war crimes exist. The list includes:
– Murder or maiming of anyone not part of the hostilities.
– The taking of hostages.
– Sexual abuse.
– Torture or other forms of inhumane treatment.
– Performing biological experiments on people.
– Attacking people involved with humanitarian or peacekeeping efforts.
– Intentionally employing attacks that will kill or injure civilians.
– Attacking communities that aren’t military objectives.
– Intentionally using starvation as a method of warfare. .
– Killing or wounding an enemy who has surrendered.
In theory, these are humane objectives, but war is a perversion that laughs at mercy.
Americans’ hope for an end to such killing goes back to 1785, when our soon-to-be president wrote a friend, “My first wish is to see this plague of mankind, war, banished from the earth.”
Easier said than done, Mr. Washington.
Many, if not most of us, would have disagreed with U.S. Rep. Jeanette Rankin of Montana, a pacifist and the only member of Congress to oppose declaring war on Japan after Pearl Harbor.
Still, there was truth in her opinion that “There can be no compromise with war; it cannot be reformed or controlled; cannot be disciplined into decency or codified into common sense….”
Iconic newsman Walter Cronkite once described war as “a form of madness. It’s hardly a civilized pursuit. It’s amazing how we spent so much time inventing devices to kill each other and so little time working on how to achieve peace.”
The English activist Muriel Lester put war into the same category as “cannibalism, chattel slavery, blood-feuds, and dueling, an insult to God and humanity, a daily crucifixion of Christ.”
Albert Einstein, while not directly involved in the development of the first nuclear weapon, once warned that America should create one before Adolf Hitler did.
Later in life, though, the acclaimed physicist called his early support “the one great mistake of my life.”
During the Cold War and its nuclear arms race, Einstein bared his regrets in the form of a terrifying prediction:
“I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones.”
Gerry Goldstein (gerryg76@verizon.net), a frequent contributor, is a retired Providence Journal editor and columnist.
