Jus In Bello Quotes

According to the laws of war, a warring party can just walk away from civilian harm that they have caused.

I will always be an advocate in terms of wars of necessity. I am just much more cautious on wars of choice.

The Islamic method of waging war is not to kill innocent civilians, but it was Christians in World War II who bombed innocent civilians in Dresden and dropped the nuclear bomb on Hiroshima, neither of which were military targets.

If you shell a military base and happen to kill civilians, you have not committed a war crime; if you deliberately target cities and towns, you have.

Under well-settled legal principles, lethal force against a valid military objective, in an armed conflict, is consistent with the law of war and does not, by definition, constitute an 'assassination.'

We draw the sword with a clear conscious and clean hands! Our invasion of Belgium is contrary to International Law, but this wrong – I speak openly – that we are committing – that we are committing – we will make right as soon as our military objective has been attained.

… it was not necessary to make any definition of "aggressor" or "self-defense." I do not think it can be done, anyway, accurately. They have been trying to do it in Europe for six or eight years, and they never have been able to accurately define " aggressor " or " self-defense.

The world is beginning to doubt the moral basis for our War on Terrorism.

I think the whole policy of pre-emptive war is a serious, serious mistake.

The argument that someone is a bad man is an inadequate argument for war and certainly an inadequate and unacceptable argument for regime change.

It is a rule of international law that weapons and methods of warfare which do not discriminate between combatants and civilians should never be used.

It's never acceptable to target civilians. It violates the Geneva Accords, it violates the international law of war and it violates all principles of morality.

There is such a thing as legitimate warfare: war has its laws; there are things which may fairly be done, and things which may not be done.

The preemptive use of force has always been part of international law.