Severed heads of the enemies were flung into besieged cities with catapults, and plague corpses were thrown into wells. Foreign women were raped and taken captive. Captured soldiers were subjected to most brutal executions and abuse-they were tortured, impaled on a stake, maimed, burned alive. The atrocities used in warfare throughout most of the ages have been extremely high. Not surprisingly, any weapon could be used to gain victory, poisons and armaments playing their part in doing maximum damage. The Latin expression vae victis (“woe to the vanquished”) was quite accurate in reflecting the unenviable prospects for the losing side: huge contributions, plundering of land, the local population turned slaves for hard labor. War has been both a driver of technological progress and a means of winning top spots on the geopolitical Olympus, much as a source of political and economic motivation and a powerful rallying factor for peoples and nations. Mankind’s known history is a history of wars. Does this mean that there is something wrong with the rules themselves and that international humanitarian and military law as a whole are futile? No.įrom the Hague to Geneva: enshrining the rules of warfare Are these rules regularly followed? Mostly not. Do we have any detailed and documented rules of military engagement today? Yes.
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