Quote Originally Posted by Polarbear1605 View Post
Thanks for the clarification. I understand now you were looking at this from a different view point and agree with your example that it is reflexive vs deliberate. When I refer to dogma my “vs” is as in “dogma vs doctrine”.
My thanks right back at you for your clarification. Good thing we are able to clarify terms used.
As to the distinction between Law of War and Rule of Law, I would assert that in the domain of "Legal Processes" the former is a subset of the latter. In other words, it really makes no sense to talk about the Law of War unless an environment exists in which some fair/objective process (or perhaps "due process" is a better word choice) exists to examine whether aspects of the Law of War have been followed or breached.
This last may seem to be at variance with your points about an absence of the rule of law, but I took your point to be that this absence is found in the area of operations, not in the organization conducting COIN. The deployed force has a goal (perhaps) of installing or restoring the rule of law to that place where the COIN mission is being conducted; that deployed force also operates internally under the Rule of Law. In the case at hand, the UCMJ/MCM is a significant part of the Rule of Law specification but is not the whole story.