The Laws of War: A Military View

Abstract

I served as a lieutenant in Vietnam. In June 1969, after being in the country for about ten days, I saw my first combat action and it was typically confusing. My platoon was on a reconnaissance mission as part of a larger force when some members of the unit saw a few Vietcong soldiers and began to pursue them through the jungle and marshland countryside. The enemy soldiers were quickly cornered, one was captured, and at least two more cowered in a streambed about 100 yards away. In circumstances I do not fully understand to this day, there was gunfire, many vehicles raced back and forth, and the two radios I was required to monitor broadcast a confusion of chatter. Suddenly, on the higher command radio, I heard the voice of our colonel: “Stop shooting; that's murder,” he ordered. The soldiers did stop shooting, the prisoners were secured, and we continued our mission. But that single, short order had great impact on me. It taught me more than any schoolhouse instruction ever could have about the laws of war and how professional soldiers behave in combat.

Norm Regress: US Revisionism and the Slow Death of the Torture Norm

“…Following the President's lead, and in contravention of military protocol, 57 the Justice Department set out to both alter the status of al Qaeda and Taliban prisoners, and signifi cantly narrow the defi nition of torture. On 9 January 2002, in a now infamous memo from John Yoo of the Justice Department's Offi ce of Legal Counsel (OLC), the OLC categorized al Qaeda and Taliban prisoners as 'unlawful enemy combatants', a category 'beyond soldier and civilian' to whom the Geneva Conventions barring cruel, humiliating and degrading treatment and torture do not apply.…”