WHAT IS LAWFUL AND UNLAWFUL IN WAR

I have lost the interest to track the news of the warfare in Falluja. It is the repeat of same old guerilla fighting, tragedy, sufferings of innocent people and accusation of human rights violations by the coalition forces. The bottom line is more people are dying and cities demolished. Daniel Brett looks at the US tactics of warfare in Falluja and concludes that "failure to engage in urban warfare tactics will have serious political repercussions for the Americans, if not at home then certainly in Iraq and across the world".

There had been many discussions going on whether the US marine shot the wounded Iraqi out of self defense or not. I feel sorry for the US soldiers who are exposed to these moral questions and I remember this story:

One valiant soldier comes back from the war and finds his country in economic crisis. His son is starving for food and food is scarce in the market. He went out to buy a bread and finds that another person has purchased the only bread available. He requested that person to hand over that bread. The person refused and he shot him. Later he was apprehended and the judge asked " Do you know that it is an offence to kill a human being?" The soldier asked "Why?"

War always brings humanitarian crisis and it is wrong to try to defend the legitimacy of the atrocities of the war (by any of the party). The eyewash of the trial of the accused US marine is really a farce. He is guilty of following the order.