Lawfare - Theory & Practice

[Schmedlap]

By calling off the operation in the circmstances presented above, we hand them their victory.

I can't really think of any one operation that we've done in the past 8 years that was so important that it would have significantly changed things had we opted to stand down. On the other hand, we get our balls stomped on a regular basis in the media. I was just suggesting that in some situations like this, it might be to our advantage to attack them with information, rather than bombs.

In looking at your scenario above, and accounting for issues of proportionality, attacking a target despite civilian casualties can be lawful. A focus on law rather than morality (which may differ according to culture, etc.) may assist in our fight. Of course, this may not really be feasible since everyone does not have the ability to coldly consider law in light of some of its consequences. I'd be interested in hearing thoughts on this.

I agree. I wasn't suggesting that a scenario such as the one I proposed would legally require us to stand down. In regard to law and morality, I think our laws and morality are the outer bounds within which we must confine our actions. Other laws and the morals of appropriate target audiences are the more restrictive bounds within which we may choose to confine certain operations.