Quote Originally Posted by Tukhachevskii View Post
I have been thinking about ways our enemies could continue to gut us morally (in terms of atatcking the legitimacy of our governments at home) and of how Muslim combatants could pursue their goals by using our own culture against us. So, what would our strategy, or more importantly, our rules of engagement be, if, say during a "humantarian" intervention into Darfur or Ethiopia we were confronted with hordes of child soldiers?
During a humanitarian intervention, the only appropriate use of deadly force would be for self-protection. Given that other means are available to preclude the use of deadly force, the ROE ought to be to use such means whenever possible.
I'd suggest that those involved in a humanitarian intervention be primarily (perhaps exclusively) equipped with incapaciting agents/devices. Chemical examples can be found here. Other items that are capable of causing incapitation are available. Some examples include electromuscular incapacitating devices (EMD), AKA stun guns or Tasers®, and high intensity noise generators.

As others have noted, a vigorous information operations (IO) campaign, one that pre-empts the opponent's PR strategy is also required. Such a media campaign must alert the world to the possibility of engagement by "child soldiers" and and explain the intended responses to be used should such engagements arise. The IO campaign needs to be initiated prior to deployment and continued at least until the intervention force redeploys, if not longer.