Sun Tzu And Geneva Conventions: The Rules Of War
Rules are applicable in almost everything we do, whether it would be sport, school, or life in general. Without rules how would our world function, if there were no rules our society would be in corruption. There would be chaos and riots every day. If there are rules to govern the actions in regular society, there are no exceptions for rules in war. In war there are many laws to justify certain types of tactics or behaviors. These laws fall under the Geneva Conventions. In our modern world we have an intergovernmental organization to enforce certain rules in war to enforce humanity and morality in war, this intergovernmental organization plays the role of the police in regular society. The rules can include not engaging the Red Cross, or accepting
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a surrender with a white flag (Schindler).
The Geneva Convention is a set of treaties on the treatment of civilians, medical personal, and prisoners of war. These Geneva conventions are made up of four conventions that started in 1864, the conventions are made to govern the conduct of militaries during a conflict (Schindler). The Geneva Convention is possible by the participating nations. Nations that sign and participate are subject to follow the rules of the Geneva Convention, even the lowest rank soldier is governed by these rules. These rules are set in place to make war justified and fair.
Rules of Engagement are rules that allow the use of aggression or the use of force. If there were no rules of engagement, war would have no morals. In most engagements the United States and many western countries have rules of engagement, examples of these rules are not to engage unless engaged upon, not to fire in civilian populated areas, hospitals, national monuments, and cultural sites. The use of rules of engagement are made to not commit war crimes. War crimes are crimes committed in war to hold someone responsible for their actions, war crimes are one of the worst types of international law. People who have committed war crimes are people like Adolf Hitler. Walzer explains Adolf Hitler as a “Criminal, and all the fighting he does is murder or attempted murder” (Walzer). Hitler was a terrible man who was in charge of the Nazi party, this man was charged with numerous war crimes, he was convicted of murder, enslavement, and genocide (Jockusch).
The importance of rules in war is so crucial because without rules our history could be very drastically different. If we didn’t have rules in war how would our nation look? With radical states like North Korea being a threat to our nation, it is highly likely that we could easily wipe out their entire nation within 3 days. The reason we don’t wipe out the entire radical nation is because the United States has morals that needs to be followed. The United States is the leading nation in this world is because we have such strict rules of engagement for our nation’s military. Without these protocols like the Geneva Conventions, we would not be such a powerful credible nation that we are today.
Rules in war make wars moral. Morality in war is so important because the morality is what makes our human principles. By the definition of the dictionary morality is “concerning the distinction between right and wrong or good and bad behavior”. Morality is a controversial topic because there is no universal set of rules that govern what I believe to be right and what others perceive to be wrong. In many countries the rules and the beliefs change very much from country to country and state to state. The customs like a single marriage could change if I were in a middle eastern where polygamy is accepted. Customs and morals that the United States Army have are called the 7 army values, in these values it states how a united states soldier should act and what kind of values should be instilled upon them.
Rules in war can be dated back all the way to the ancient Chinese.
The ancient Chinese were so advanced in their societies that they were able to make wars moral and were able to instill discipline in the battlefield. Sun Tzu explains that there is a strict discipline within their military. Sun Tzu clearly states that there are certain rules to follow during a time of war “a city, although isolated and susceptible to attack, is not to be attacked” (Tzu 113). This quote is saying that although a city is isolated and attackable one should not touch cities, Sun Tzu says this because it is not morally right and justified to attack a city with civilians. It almost seems that war had a different meaning from what it means today. I feel that the rules made by Sun Tzu were made to make war more respectful and to make it a fair battle, was is so respected that there is certain times for war and certain times for a cease fire throughout the …show more content…
seasons.
In Just and Unjust Wars it emphasizes about many rules and the morality of these rules. In the book Just and Unjust Wars it says that soldiers are held to certain standards. There are certain conduct that are expected as a soldier. When I enlisted I took an oath to support and defend this country, not only did I promise to support and defend this country but I promised that I am officially under the Uniform Code of Military Justice. The Uniform Code of Military Justice is a set of military rules that make sure you are acting in a certain order. Rules are very crucial to wars Walzer states that “war is distinguishable from murder and massacre only where restrictions are established on the reach of battle” (42) Walzer says this because without rules and justification in wars, war would be considered a massacre, there must be rules to make a war justified and morally right.
Lieutenant Jimmy Cross finds one of his men dead because of the lack of discipline of himself as a leader and his men. Rules in war are made to instill discipline, when Lieutenant Jimmy Cross’s men dies he shapes up his act and lays down Standard Operating Procedures to keep some kind of order within his unit (O’Brian). Rules are also used to not inflict pain to the civilians, in the chapter “Style” they don’t want to deal with the Vietnamese girl because they don’t want to think about the pain that they have caused to the girl and her people. Cross’s unit lacks rules and discipline when Cross’s men come into contact, Cross orders an airstrike on the village that they had received contact from. After the airstrike they find an old man laying hopelessly dead, the men poke him and make fun of the dead old man. In the Geneva Convention it says that they are not allowed to engage civilians and unfortunately they had gotten an old man killed, the unit lacks discipline because in a situation where someone is deceased they should have the upmost respect for the man if they had rules and had morals.
In every engagement there is almost a guarantee that there is going to be a war crime that was committed. During the war on terror there were rules broken. This not only made the war itself discreditable but it made the nation lose trust of the very people that fight for their freedom. On March 11, 2012 Staff Sergeant Robert Bales was involved in storming two Afghan Villages. During this raid Staff Sergeant Robert Bales was responsible for leaving 16 civilian dead. Bales was sentenced to life in prison without parole (Krammer). Unfortunately not all war crimes are reported and investigated, many of these people go walk around freely. In the Vietnam War the United States had many war crimes committed because of the lack of discipline the soldiers had.
In the Art of War the type of discipline instilled was a type where if you did not listen you would be killed.
Just like in the reading Sun Tzu was trying to train a couple of the emperor’s concubines to be deadly warriors. At first Sun Tzu chose the two most senior concubines to be in charge to lead the rest of the group, when the concubines were disorganized and taking the training as a joke Sun Tzu went ahead and killed the 2 senior leaders to prove to the group that he is not fooling around. After proving to the group that he is serious and that they must take the training seriously. Sun Tzu was able to successfully train the concubines to be warriors. This just shows that the type of discipline that the ancient Chinese had was strict, in this type of strict environment it is less likely that the foot soldier would disobey orders and go against any rules of war that the emperor gives out
(Tzu).
In The Things They Carried it is very clear that they had broken the rules of war when they went and engaged one of the villages (O’Brian). Not only did the soldiers in the Things They Carried break a major rule of engagement by firing in a civilian concentrated location but they were not convicted with anything. It really makes you question how many of these similar cases have gone uninvestigated. What types of military groups are able to get away with these rules of engagement, who is above the law? Are Special Forces exempt from these rules, are spies also exempt? When does justified killing become unjust? Rules of engagement should not be questionable. The fact of the matter is that war is not like a game where referees are there to officiate wars. It’s unfortunate that it is difficult to tract everyone committing crimes of wars.
For these modern soldiers to not commit crimes of wars it is the “Limits and restraints that distinguish their life’s work from mere butchery” (Walzer 45). It is truly up to the soldiers, and the men in that unit to make sure that the actions produced in war are justified and moral. In war, it is easy to get carried away with certain actions that would be shunned upon in regular society. Although the enemy maybe breaking the rules and participating in unjustified types of warfare does not mean that it is authorized for the United States to break these rules in war. In our war on terror it is hard to fight a war when the enemy breaks all the rules and uses the United States rules of engagement as an upper hand. Our enemy use dirty bombs and IED’s, hide in crowded locations, and target innocent civilians (Bakir). It would be a fair advantage if the U.S. forces were able to fire upon anytime at a suspected enemy, unlike the rules implemented now where we have to be engaged first to engage back. If we did not have the rules of war that we have set today, and we fought war evenly with our enemy it would not even be considered a war because we would destroyed the enemy so bad. It is so easy to break the rules to gain the upper hand, but unlike our enemy the United States armed forces has morals and live up to the values instilled upon each member of the armed forces.
Not only does the rules apply to regular society but these rules also play a big part in wars. These rules are implemented to differentiate wars from being changed from murder to a massacre, it also instills value and morality in war. Without these rules governing our wars our planet could easily be wiped out by nuclear warfare or genocide. It is often difficult to follow certain rules of engagement during a time of war when everything is about killing and you are not in the right mind set. No one is out there to officiate war so the rules are really there for you to be disciplined enough to follow these rules. Not only do these rules make it difficult to incapacitate the enemy but it makes you more susceptible to being killed because of the tight restrictions of engaging the enemy. Although our enemies don’t play fair the United States are held to a higher standard and expected to live up to these rules and to enforce these rules. Without these restrictions and rules implemented in war our world would be a totally different place than what it is today.
a surrender with a white flag (Schindler).
The Geneva Convention is a set of treaties on the treatment of civilians, medical personal, and prisoners of war. These Geneva conventions are made up of four conventions that started in 1864, the conventions are made to govern the conduct of militaries during a conflict (Schindler). The Geneva Convention is possible by the participating nations. Nations that sign and participate are subject to follow the rules of the Geneva Convention, even the lowest rank soldier is governed by these rules. These rules are set in place to make war justified and fair.
Rules of Engagement are rules that allow the use of aggression or the use of force. If there were no rules of engagement, war would have no morals. In most engagements the United States and many western countries have rules of engagement, examples of these rules are not to engage unless engaged upon, not to fire in civilian populated areas, hospitals, national monuments, and cultural sites. The use of rules of engagement are made to not commit war crimes. War crimes are crimes committed in war to hold someone responsible for their actions, war crimes are one of the worst types of international law. People who have committed war crimes are people like Adolf Hitler. Walzer explains Adolf Hitler as a “Criminal, and all the fighting he does is murder or attempted murder” (Walzer). Hitler was a terrible man who was in charge of the Nazi party, this man was charged with numerous war crimes, he was convicted of murder, enslavement, and genocide (Jockusch).
The importance of rules in war is so crucial because without rules our history could be very drastically different. If we didn’t have rules in war how would our nation look? With radical states like North Korea being a threat to our nation, it is highly likely that we could easily wipe out their entire nation within 3 days. The reason we don’t wipe out the entire radical nation is because the United States has morals that needs to be followed. The United States is the leading nation in this world is because we have such strict rules of engagement for our nation’s military. Without these protocols like the Geneva Conventions, we would not be such a powerful credible nation that we are today.
Rules in war make wars moral. Morality in war is so important because the morality is what makes our human principles. By the definition of the dictionary morality is “concerning the distinction between right and wrong or good and bad behavior”. Morality is a controversial topic because there is no universal set of rules that govern what I believe to be right and what others perceive to be wrong. In many countries the rules and the beliefs change very much from country to country and state to state. The customs like a single marriage could change if I were in a middle eastern where polygamy is accepted. Customs and morals that the United States Army have are called the 7 army values, in these values it states how a united states soldier should act and what kind of values should be instilled upon them.
Rules in war can be dated back all the way to the ancient Chinese.
The ancient Chinese were so advanced in their societies that they were able to make wars moral and were able to instill discipline in the battlefield. Sun Tzu explains that there is a strict discipline within their military. Sun Tzu clearly states that there are certain rules to follow during a time of war “a city, although isolated and susceptible to attack, is not to be attacked” (Tzu 113). This quote is saying that although a city is isolated and attackable one should not touch cities, Sun Tzu says this because it is not morally right and justified to attack a city with civilians. It almost seems that war had a different meaning from what it means today. I feel that the rules made by Sun Tzu were made to make war more respectful and to make it a fair battle, was is so respected that there is certain times for war and certain times for a cease fire throughout the …show more content…
seasons.
In Just and Unjust Wars it emphasizes about many rules and the morality of these rules. In the book Just and Unjust Wars it says that soldiers are held to certain standards. There are certain conduct that are expected as a soldier. When I enlisted I took an oath to support and defend this country, not only did I promise to support and defend this country but I promised that I am officially under the Uniform Code of Military Justice. The Uniform Code of Military Justice is a set of military rules that make sure you are acting in a certain order. Rules are very crucial to wars Walzer states that “war is distinguishable from murder and massacre only where restrictions are established on the reach of battle” (42) Walzer says this because without rules and justification in wars, war would be considered a massacre, there must be rules to make a war justified and morally right.
Lieutenant Jimmy Cross finds one of his men dead because of the lack of discipline of himself as a leader and his men. Rules in war are made to instill discipline, when Lieutenant Jimmy Cross’s men dies he shapes up his act and lays down Standard Operating Procedures to keep some kind of order within his unit (O’Brian). Rules are also used to not inflict pain to the civilians, in the chapter “Style” they don’t want to deal with the Vietnamese girl because they don’t want to think about the pain that they have caused to the girl and her people. Cross’s unit lacks rules and discipline when Cross’s men come into contact, Cross orders an airstrike on the village that they had received contact from. After the airstrike they find an old man laying hopelessly dead, the men poke him and make fun of the dead old man. In the Geneva Convention it says that they are not allowed to engage civilians and unfortunately they had gotten an old man killed, the unit lacks discipline because in a situation where someone is deceased they should have the upmost respect for the man if they had rules and had morals.
In every engagement there is almost a guarantee that there is going to be a war crime that was committed. During the war on terror there were rules broken. This not only made the war itself discreditable but it made the nation lose trust of the very people that fight for their freedom. On March 11, 2012 Staff Sergeant Robert Bales was involved in storming two Afghan Villages. During this raid Staff Sergeant Robert Bales was responsible for leaving 16 civilian dead. Bales was sentenced to life in prison without parole (Krammer). Unfortunately not all war crimes are reported and investigated, many of these people go walk around freely. In the Vietnam War the United States had many war crimes committed because of the lack of discipline the soldiers had.
In the Art of War the type of discipline instilled was a type where if you did not listen you would be killed.
Just like in the reading Sun Tzu was trying to train a couple of the emperor’s concubines to be deadly warriors. At first Sun Tzu chose the two most senior concubines to be in charge to lead the rest of the group, when the concubines were disorganized and taking the training as a joke Sun Tzu went ahead and killed the 2 senior leaders to prove to the group that he is not fooling around. After proving to the group that he is serious and that they must take the training seriously. Sun Tzu was able to successfully train the concubines to be warriors. This just shows that the type of discipline that the ancient Chinese had was strict, in this type of strict environment it is less likely that the foot soldier would disobey orders and go against any rules of war that the emperor gives out
(Tzu).
In The Things They Carried it is very clear that they had broken the rules of war when they went and engaged one of the villages (O’Brian). Not only did the soldiers in the Things They Carried break a major rule of engagement by firing in a civilian concentrated location but they were not convicted with anything. It really makes you question how many of these similar cases have gone uninvestigated. What types of military groups are able to get away with these rules of engagement, who is above the law? Are Special Forces exempt from these rules, are spies also exempt? When does justified killing become unjust? Rules of engagement should not be questionable. The fact of the matter is that war is not like a game where referees are there to officiate wars. It’s unfortunate that it is difficult to tract everyone committing crimes of wars.
For these modern soldiers to not commit crimes of wars it is the “Limits and restraints that distinguish their life’s work from mere butchery” (Walzer 45). It is truly up to the soldiers, and the men in that unit to make sure that the actions produced in war are justified and moral. In war, it is easy to get carried away with certain actions that would be shunned upon in regular society. Although the enemy maybe breaking the rules and participating in unjustified types of warfare does not mean that it is authorized for the United States to break these rules in war. In our war on terror it is hard to fight a war when the enemy breaks all the rules and uses the United States rules of engagement as an upper hand. Our enemy use dirty bombs and IED’s, hide in crowded locations, and target innocent civilians (Bakir). It would be a fair advantage if the U.S. forces were able to fire upon anytime at a suspected enemy, unlike the rules implemented now where we have to be engaged first to engage back. If we did not have the rules of war that we have set today, and we fought war evenly with our enemy it would not even be considered a war because we would destroyed the enemy so bad. It is so easy to break the rules to gain the upper hand, but unlike our enemy the United States armed forces has morals and live up to the values instilled upon each member of the armed forces.
Not only does the rules apply to regular society but these rules also play a big part in wars. These rules are implemented to differentiate wars from being changed from murder to a massacre, it also instills value and morality in war. Without these rules governing our wars our planet could easily be wiped out by nuclear warfare or genocide. It is often difficult to follow certain rules of engagement during a time of war when everything is about killing and you are not in the right mind set. No one is out there to officiate war so the rules are really there for you to be disciplined enough to follow these rules. Not only do these rules make it difficult to incapacitate the enemy but it makes you more susceptible to being killed because of the tight restrictions of engaging the enemy. Although our enemies don’t play fair the United States are held to a higher standard and expected to live up to these rules and to enforce these rules. Without these restrictions and rules implemented in war our world would be a totally different place than what it is today.