Civilian Harm Quotes
This is true. There never has been any International law that made a belligerent responsible for civilian damages and deaths that were the result of collateral damage. However, the United States over the years, more so than any other country. Provided huge amount of aid to the citizens of the enemy nations although there was no legal obligation to do so.
The Syrian Civil War created a great dilemma for pacifists. The government of Syria was murdering civilians in large numbers if they were in areas suspected of containing rebels. Diplomacy and sanctions would not stop the slaughter. It appeared that the only way to stop the murder of so many civilians was to use military force against the Syrian government. Junger posed the moral dilemma this way.
This is always a problem in parts of the world where conflicts operate with many different parties and theater are personal grudges and scores to settle.
The Minister equates the unintended consequences of war and civilian casualties with a terrorist retaliation which has as its purpose the killing of as many civilians as possible. The proliferation of terrorism complicated the ethics of counter terrorism. In the case of Palestinian terrorists their tactics included using civilian facilities---schools, hospitals, homes---from which to launch rocket attacks or to store weapons or hide terrorists. Under international laws of war, a civilian facility and the civilians in it become legitimate military targets the minute that weapons are stored in or fired from that location or that location is used for planning, training, equipping or manufacturing of military material. Palestinian terrorists claim that even though civilians were harmed in legitimate, legal attacks on military targets, a proper response is to send suicide bombers into civilian areas and preparing the explosives with nails and rat poison to cause as much pain as possible.
