and about irregular combatants and non-combatants, I've read - well written and researched.

Richard D. Rosen (Associate Professor of Law and Director, Center for Military Law & Policy, Texas Tech University School of Law; Colonel, U.S. Army, ret.), Targeting Enemy Forces in the War on Terror: Preserving Civilian Immunity, Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law, Volume 42, Number 3: May 2009.

It can be downloaded (as of today) by going to the current index. That will probably end when it goes into the archives. This is a direct link (now).

ABSTRACT

Protocol I to the Geneva Conventions of 1949 and the interpretation given to it by many in the international community (e.g., UN, NGOs, media) provide perverse incentives to terrorist and insurgent groups to shield their military activities behind civilians and their property. In other words, the law governing targeting is fundamentally defective; it allows terrorist and insurgent groups to gain strategic and tactical advantages through their own noncompliance with the law and their adversaries’ observance of it. The consequence has been increasing noncompliance with the law and growing civilian casualties. This Article proposes structural changes to the law governing targeting and attitudinal changes by those who interpret it to ensure that civilians receive adequate security from armed attack.
and, from the body (p.8):

In short, Protocol I provides a powerful incentive for insurgents and terrorist organizations to rely on their enemies’ observance of the law of war. It creates a “win-win-win” situation for such groups: either their adversaries avoid striking them altogether out of fear of causing civilian casualties (win); or they attack them, cause civilian casualties, and suffer international condemnation (win); or they forego air power and artillery and attack using ground troops, thereby incurring much greater casualties and the loss of their public’s support for the conflict (win).
I love it when a COL agrees with me

So, COL Rosen, if you (or one of your friends willing to act as messenger) see this, please come to SWC and join the choir. We'd love to have you - and I'll try to keep smarta$$ remarks to a minimum.