“War Crime” Is a Redundancy (Almost)

What is beyond the pale?

Keeping up with the news coming out of Gaza is daunting, so I can’t remember where I read it, but I recently saw someone reject the use of the term “war crime” because, as they put it, “all war is a crime.”

That would put the phrase in a club along with hot water heater, tuna fish, Lake Tahoe, and ATM machine.

I don’t entirely agree, but points for a thought-provoking way of putting it.

I am not a pacifist, but I do believe that most people — and certainly the majority of political leaders — misunderstand the limitations of violence as a tool of policy, and are far too eager to turn to it. (Go read Clausewitz’s On War, in the original tongue if possible. I’ll wait here for three years while you learn German.)

Those limitations are purely practical in nature and require no appeal to altruism or morality. That ought to be enough. But even in war there are moral boundaries. The war in Gaza offers a perfect, if horrifying, demonstration.

Auteur Theory

Though it may come as a surprise to some, there is a thing called the law of war. Is it naïve to believe in its efficacy and importance? On the contrary. It is naïve to believe we can wage war without it.