Rules of War Often Broken but Still Vital

[shawn703]

Though often flouted, even by the proudest of armies, the international rules of war are perhaps more vital to U.S. forces today than when drafted many decades ago, according to military analysts and battle-tested officers.
The abuse of Iraqi prisoners by U.S. soldiers depicted to the world in graphic photographs has only underscored the importance of training U.S. service members to observe those rules regardless of circumstances, said Col. Patrick Finnegan, who heads the law department at the U.S. Military Academy.

"We try to get the cadets to think about what the rules mean and why we follow them, even when the other side might not," said Finnegan, a veteran of the first Gulf War.


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