From Strategypage, evidence that lawfare leads to more enemy dead, fewer prisoners.
Iraqi security forces have had a growing impact on terrorist operations. This largely goes unreported, but the Iraqi police and soldiers, especially the elite counter-terror units, have interrupted many terror attacks, and arrested many terrorists. Aware of the corruption of the courts and regular police, the counter-terror units will often just kill key terrorists during raids, rather than risk the prisoner bribing his way to freedom. This is also an unofficial policy in some American operations, and official policy when missile armed UAVs are used.
We get enough intel and the risk of further friendly casualties is far enough above zero that we’re just killing people out of hand when in the past we might have sought to capture them. Congratulations lawfare participants in the media and legal professions. Their blood is on your hands.
cross posted @ Flit-TM
I remember Don Rumsfeld talking about the number of lawyers in the Pentagon when he was first Sec Def and then when he returned. The ration was something like 50 to one.
“The first thing we do, let’s kill all the lawyers.”
Shakespeare, The Second part of King Henry the Sixth, Act IV Scene 2.
I’ve always liked Sir Thomas More, from Bolt’s A Man For All Seasons, on law:
“What would you do? Cut a great road through the law to get after the Devil? … And when the last law was down, and the Devil turned round on you – where would you hide, Roper, the laws all being flat? This country is planted thick with laws from coast to coast, Man’s laws, not God’s, and if you cut them down — and you’re just the man to do it — do you really think you could stand upright in the winds that would blow then? Yes, I give the Devil benefit of law, for my own safety’s sake!”
PenGun,
This country is planted thick with laws from coast to coast…
Sir Thomas Moore was talking about a functioning country with a rich and long established rule of common law. Such a situation does not exist in an active war zone or even in a nation new to the concept of the rule of law. A lot of ground work has to be done to establish a true rule of law. Leftists like you take the cultural institution of the rule of law, a unique cultural development of Northern Europe, completely for granted and you don’t appreciate what a rare and fragile thing it cultural institution it is.
Lawfare is the attempt to impose a fantasy of law on war which is by definition lawlessness and chaos. It doesn’t make warfare more lawful but instead corrupts law with the ruthless and extemporaneous nature of war. History has shown quite clearly that when faced with following a law or losing a war (or just a battle) even liberal democracies will choose victory over law. FDR broke law after law in both the run up to and during WWII. All the nice legal theories of interwar years disintegrated when faced with the reality of WWII.
Real laws and real warfare must never mix lest law be destroyed.
And let’s face it, people like you don’t care about law. You venerate those who scorn the rule of law and evolutionary change in favor of sweeping, autocratic revolutionary change. You view common law as an impediment to implementing whatever grand idea you had this morning when you were brushing your teeth. You support and/or argue for the interest of lawless actor after lawless actor.
Your only interest in law and warfare comes from your cynical desire to impede the war fighting capabilities of liberal-democracies. You simply view “law” as a tool to cause liberal-democracies to lose wars which you view as victory for your side in internal politics of liberal-democracies. You don’t care how many people both in militaries of non-combantents who die as a result.
Beautiful response Shannon Love….Law-fare is another of the Left’s incredible hypocrisy! Bah, we will be rid of these fools soon eneough!