AccessMyLibrary provides FREE access to over 30 million articles from top publications available through your library.
Create a link to this page
Copy and paste this link tag into your Web page or blog:
War may be hell, but without rules it would be even worse.
Byline: Alfred Lubrano
PHILADELPHIA _ Though war is savage, it still has rules.
Last month, observers accused Iraq of breaking several of those stipulations by showing U.S. prisoners of war on television; flying false flags of surrender, then attacking coalition soldiers; using a hospital as a base of military operations; dressing soldiers as civilians; and compelling civilians to act as human shields.
Though it might seem an oxymoron to talk of codes of combat, documents such as the 1907 Hague Conventions and the 1949 Geneva Conventions aim to curtail chaos and protect civilians and prisoners.
For thousands of years, the behavior of armies in warfare has been governed by long lists of laws.
"Whether it's archers in the Middle Ages or artillery commanders headed for Baghdad, soldiers have always behaved in accordance to certain rules," said Beth Hillman, an expert on military law at Rutgers University School of Law in Camden, N.J. "And these rules make a difference."
Iraq signed the Geneva Conventions in 1956, the United States in 1955.
- War has changed. The laws of war must, too. The Geneva Conventions are outdated...
- Newspaper article from: The Christian Science Monitor November 16, 2006 700+ words
...must the laws of war. Of course, the...which include the Geneva Conventions, the Hague Regulations...them prisoner-of-war (POW) status. The Geneva Conventions grant POW status...abide by the laws of war, operate pursuant...
- Part II: The Training of the Military: National Law and the Teaching of the...
- Magazine article from: Social Research Helton, Arthur C. December 22, 2002 700+ words
...Teaching of the Geneva Conventions" follows the discussion...just and unjust war. Although the...structure of the Geneva Conventions. The extraordinary...ourselves--a war on terrorism...provisions of the Geneva Conventions--notably the...of prisoners of war. A ...
- Rewriting rules of war.(Editorials)(Bush seeks exemption from Geneva...
- Newspaper article from: The Register-Guard (Eugene, OR) August 14, 2006 700+ words
...violations of the Geneva Conventions. Gigantic get...prisoners of war. The White House...policy that the Geneva Conventions didn't apply...the rules of war. They understand...disregard the Geneva Conventions could come back...
- Unleashing the laws of war; The Geneva conventions at 60.
- Magazine article from: The Economist (US) August 15, 2009 700+ words
...of two world wars in mind. Those...the laws of war and the protection...whether the Geneva conventions and their later...The number of wars between states...would banish war itself, neither the four Geneva conventions of 1949...
- Rules of war. (Geneva Conventions)(War - The Future)
- Magazine article from: Canada and the World Backgrounder April 1, 1995 700+ words
...are rules which govern the way in which wars are supposed to be fought. Bundled together as the Geneva Conventions, these rules are recognized by many...rules of combat during the 1991 Gulf War. Early in the morning of 22 January...
- New wars demand new rules, warns John Reid; MINISTER WANTS REVIEW OF GENEVA...
- Newspaper article from: The Daily Mail (London, England) April 4, 2006 700+ words
...for changes to the rules of war and the treatment of prisoners...called for a review of the 1949 Geneva Conventions governing the treatment of prisoners of war. In a speech to the Royal...But he said new rules of war are needed because 'I also...
- Guantanamo Justice? Behind the Wires: Nobody in the detention center on the...
- Magazine article from: Newsweek Gutman, Roy Dickey, Christopher Yousafzai, Sami July 8, 2002 700+ words
...famine--and then from the war. They stayed in touch with...could not get out. And as the war turned against the Taliban...not "investigated." The Geneva Conventions do not apply because, by presidential...men are not "prisoners of war." But the U.S. Constitution...
- Geneva Conventions provide help for POWs - when they're...
- Newspaper article from: The Washington Times McCain, Robert Stacy April 2, 1999 700+ words
...treatment as prisoners of war under the Geneva Conventions, a series of international...agreements on the rules of war dating to 1864. The Geneva Conventions became familiar to...nations recognize the Geneva Conventions, nations at war have often disregarded...
