Necessity, Proportionality and the Rules of War

[Tomconroy]

An important xitter thread that explains the rules of war, and explains why there is a difference between beheading a child and bombing a building where a child may die.

You may not agree but this is how western armies are supposed to operate:

Link to tweet

Maybe someone with more skills than I, can unroll and repost the thread for those who understandably hate xitter. The thread is long.

[inthewind21]

1. No such thing

as an "important" twitter thread.

[ShazzieB]

3. Uhhhhh......?

There most certainly ARE Twitter threads that contain important information. (Yes, even now. )

If you don't want to read any of them, guess what? You don't have to!

I don't use Twitter, but I am glad that some people do use it and post tweets here that are informative and/or amusing. Including this op.

[ShazzieB]

4. I would really like to read this thread.

Unfortunately, X is only letting me see the first post, darn it.

P.S.

[moonshinegnomie]

8. see post 7

[sarisataka]

5. I don't have an account to see it all but

When I was in the Military Police and had to explain law of war to young kids deploying to combat zones. So here is my Law of War for Dummies-


You cannot call in an air strike on a school, hospital or other civilian target

Unless enemy combatants are using the location for military purposes

And even if that is the case you cannot level the four surrounding blocks "just to be sure" you get them


My addition was "Though it may be a legitimate target due to enemy actions, get as many civilians out of the target area as possible. You'll sleep better when this is over."

[ShazzieB]

6. Thanks for this.

These are all things I figured would be included.

I'd still like to read the rest of those tweets, if I ever get a chance, but in the meantime, I've been googling "rules of war" and finding some interesting things.

[moonshinegnomie]

9. see post 7

[ShazzieB]

13. I just read it, and I feel like I learned a lot!

Reading that made me realize more then ever how much I DON'T know about the kinds of decisions the IDF are faced with.

Unfortunately, it's WAY too easy to criticize something you don't know much about, especially if you aren't aware of how much you don't know. And it's also too easy to assume you know more than you do. I'd say there's a lot of this kind of stuff going around right now in these threads about Israel and Hamas.

[Redleg]

15. This is good advice

Learned something similar in my time in the field artillery.

[moonshinegnomie]

7. the entire thread so you dont have to go to twitter

[EarnestPutz]

11. Wow. Extra points for you effort in posting this. I'm so glad you did. This insight.....

......into decision making and morality in war is just astounding, to me and I hope others. Thanks.

(Also, and not to distract from the subject at hand, how do you get the cool black background?)

[moonshinegnomie]

12. someone on twitter used an app that unrolls an entire thread

i just screen shotted it , i use dark mode on twitter so i always have a black background

[ShazzieB]

14. Thanks so much for this!

[Beastly Boy]

16. Thank you, thank you, thank you!

I intend to make your post very popular on DU.

Any hint of Part 2?

I would appreciate it very much.

[moonshinegnomie]

10. post 7 has the entire thread