Quote Originally Posted by marct View Post
Sometimes, you and I are much closer than would appear . I have a real problem with the wooly socio-cultural agendas as well, both because they are driven by poor social science and because they stem from a particular cultural position.
Was never aware that we were not that close!

Here I have to partly disagree with you, Wilf, although I do agree with the "should". Historically, warfare is about the prcise application of force designed to break the enemy's will to resist and sometimes that means the complete destruction of the enemy's society (Carthage, Assyria, NAZI Germany, Koisan, etc.).
I was/am only talking about Irregular warfare, where the population concerned is either your own or the one which you want to defer to the Governments authority. Not killing them and taking a lot of care not to, is probably wise. It's a political choice, not a moral one.
When it comes to the population of an actual, or de-facto enemy state, you should do everything to break the enemies will. You should not target civilians, but you should not let civilians prevent you from destroying legitimate targets.