Principles of War

War is wrong.

Sadly, however, war and military action are sometimes nescesary.

In order to resort to war and military action only when absolutely nescesary, here are some principles that should be followed.

1. War and Military Action is permissible :

a) if you have been attacked directly, either via a terrorist attack (9\11) or the armed forces, regular or irregular, of another country;

b) if you are facing an armed insurgency within your own country;

c) if you are facing and armed insurgency in your country supported and financed by another country;

d) if there is a provable immediate threat of genocide or "ethnic cleansing" violence in your own or another country (Rwanda, Bosnia);

e) if your country is in provable immediate danger or threat of attack from another country or group;

f) to conduct rescue and extraction missions from foriegn nations in civil war, from terrorists, insurgents or organized crime gangs;

2. The above war or military action must:

a) be proportional to the act or threat against you - no nuking a country for a "9\11". Use only as much force as reasonably nescessary to remove the threat. This could range from covert actions, supporting guerrillas, to raids and then to all out war, with allies;

b) be directed at the actual parties that attacked you or provably are an immediate threat to you or another country, or are harbouring those that attacked you or are an immediate threat;

c) be the last resort, used only after diplomacy, sanctions or negotiations in the regular diplomatic channels (these do not need to be public) have failed and with the support of the international community. Alternatives such as supporting internal opposition should be the first course of action;

d) be undertaken without international support only if the threat is provably immediate and real;

e) be done in conjunction with and in support of other international bodies and tribunals such as the International Criminal Court or the UN War Crimes Tribunals;

3. War and Military action can range from supporting pre-existing internal rebels or guerrillas, to commando raids (to arrest indicted war criminals and dictators), no-fly zones all the way to full war. It does not mean rushing directly to military invasion and occupation of another country.

4. It is not acceptable to use war and military action to aquire resources, spread an ideology or impose from the outside a particular system of government;

"To fight and conquer in all your battles is not supreme excellence; supreme excellence consists in breaking the enemy's resistance without fighting."
-Sun Tzu, the Art of War

Any questions?