Are the Laws Of Armed Conflict obsolete?

[Koshinn]

I personally think so. I think they need a complete overhaul and rewrite.

Thoughts?

The current laws on chemical weapons leads to a ridiculous situation. It's ok to kill 100,000 people with conventional ordnance, but Allah help you if you use chemical weapons on 100.

[Pork Chop]

Genocide and/or mass killing happens all over the world everyday. Nobody gives a shit unless its political or oil or other desirable assets like ports are involved.

This (Syria) is pure bullshit. We didn't get involved in the countless cases of butchering in Africa. We don't care that Christians are being slaughtered in Egypt. How many people are imprisoned/starved/killed in North Korea each year? Where's the outrage? None, you say? Cuz nobody cares.

The outrage here, in my opinion, started out as diversion from damning stories against the administration and turned into Dear Leader backing himself into an impossible corner.

Got himself in quite a pickle currently, doesn't he? Pure politics that are failing on every level.

[NWPilgrim]

Agree. Napalm OK but chemicals bad? Machete and hammer OK, but chemicals bad? Tire necklaces OK, but chemicals bad? Starvation as a weapon OK, but chemicals bad?

Focusing on the tools of war is stupid when it is the acts of war/genocide that are the outrage. But it makes us feel all civilized to loudly proclaim we abhor such and such weapons, but ignore, or even INFLICT, far worse atrocities done with "conventional" weapons of slaughter.

[SteyrAUG]

And of course the most ironic part of all of this is the belief that any cruise missiles we launch won't end up killing some kids indiscriminately.

Asad probably has all of his major assets ringed by day care centers. You think there are dead civilians on TV now...wait until we launch something.

Furthermore the resistance is full of Al Quida types with the Arab Brotherhood waiting in the wings to snatch power once the current regime can no longer sustain itself.

The "arab spring" will bloom into an Islamic theocracy...again. They will just call it a Democracy, just like they did in Iran.

And most important of all, you don't threaten to use cruise missiles. You just do it or don't do it. Even Bill Clinton understood that much.

But there is a silver lining, it is laughable to see John Kerry demanding we intercede in a foreign civil war because it is the responsibility of the United States as a world leader to protect freedoms even if there is no UN support.

[Moltke]

Killing is killing. However humane or inhumane is irrelevant once the person(s) is dead.

[Koshinn]

What's really hypocritical is that modern FMJ rifle rounds that fragment cause more suffering than modern soft point / hollow point rounds that do not fragment, yet hollow points are illegal but FMJs are legal. Yes it's a symptom of a treaty written 100+ years ago, but still.

[CarlosDJackal]

Those "laws" were of little use from the time they were signed. Otherwise the atrocities that were committed by the Japanese or Germans would have resulted in punishments that fit the crime.

[fixit69]

I think the spirit of these "laws" is lost on the current officials and society in general. The bad is outweighing the good so much because of why you are in the situation in the first place. It is not true to the will of the people(us). It is not why they say we are there. Slight of hand and bald face lies rule the day.

It will come back to haunt us. And when it does it will be unheard of here in America. The horrors we have feared for decades will come home to us. And I for one don't want to see this.

[RogerinTPA]

Killing is killing. However humane or inhumane is irrelevant once the person(s) is dead.

Agreed. The only thing that has changed, was the mechanism of death. The deaths in Syria by conventional means...small arms, rockets, bombs, missiles, killing people in the 100's of thousands, no problem. Black on Black killing on the streets of every major city by gun fire, no problem. Beating or killing innocent whites showing evidence as a hate crimes, no problem. Kill people with chemicals...the least of which has produced deaths in a much smaller scale in comparison, international crisis. The hypocrisy is incredible.

[Iraqgunz]

We use OTM rounds (aka hollow points) currently. The JAG ruled in accordance with treaties that the purpose of the round is to enhance accuracy and not lethality.

The reason everyone isn't getting MK 262 MOD1 or similar ammo isn't because of treaties, it's probably because of cost or internal politics.

What's really hypocritical is that modern FMJ rifle rounds that fragment cause more suffering than modern soft point / hollow point rounds that do not fragment, yet hollow points are illegal but FMJs are legal. Yes it's a symptom of a treaty written 100+ years ago, but still.