War Crimes: No Such Thing

"I'm not going to call them troops because they're essentially terrorists," said Donald Rumsfeld, referring to non-uniformered, "irregular" Iraqi soldiers who had pretended to surrender, and then opend fire. The Secretary of Defense suggested that using such deceptive tactics amounted to a war crime. Ludicrous.

When will we get past this absurd notion of "War Crimes"? There is no such thing. There is no civilized way to make war; there is no kind of war that is somehow honorable; there is no kind of war that is more savage than any other kind of war. The concept of "war crimes" is bankrupt. The idea was anachronistic after World War II, but at least then it had the context of "total war" between adversaries of comparable power. Since then, the fact of nuclear deterrence has kept the Great Powers from squaring off against each other. The armed conflicts that have been fought since the Second World War have had the character of insurrections (or Police Actions, from the opposite point of view). When a tiny, outgunned force attempts to wrest control over its homeland from a superpower, what could it possibly do that could be called a "war crime"? The underdog will fight with whatever means are available.

The idea of "war crimes" is an artifact of the feudal system, the good old days when nobles were expected to fight for kings (and, incidentally, for the security of peasants under those nobles). War was a kind of game in those days, and chivalric notions of honor tended to have similar meaning for both adversaries. The military effeteness of these ideas was brought home as long ago as the American revolution, in which colonial soldiers had the effrontery to hide behind walls and shoot British troops as they marched in dutiful formation to their next engagement.

One of the fundamental classics on military strategy is the Art of War by the Taoist strategist Sun Tzu, who articulated tactics that have been successfully incorporated by 20th century liberation movements some 2400 years later. Sun Tzu that to win a war, the general must get the people on his side. War should be waged with surprise moves; one should attack by appearing to retreat. One should have intimate familiarity with the terrain and the civil infrastructure. From Rumsfeld's point of view, The Art of War was the first terrorist manual.

Notwithstanding all this, the military is the original entrenched bureaucracy, and old notions of duty, honor and chain-of-command die hard. We have a standing army in the United States; we put men and women in uniform; when there are hostilities we call them combatants; when they die in combat we call them heroes who died defending their country. But there's no longer any truth in that. When troops are sent to remote places to fight and die in the name of US "interests", they are not defending their country; they are facilitating high-level business operations. The President's claim that the troops currently storming Iraq are defending their country is absurd.

I recently saw this sign at an anti-war rally: "PRE-EMPTIVE WAR IS A WAR CRIME".

I certainly support the feeling behind that sign. Pre-emptive war is bad, immoral policy. Pre-emptive war is anathema that mocks any lip-service the United States might pay to international law. It is an awful, awful thing that should be resisted with all the urgency and strength we can muster.

But I'm sorry: it's not a War Crime, because there is no such thing as a war crime. There is only one justifiable reason for taking up arms against anyone, and that is when those people are actively trying to kill you and your loved ones, your community. But neither the 9-11 attackers nor the troops invading Iraq are acting in self-defense -- and yet Rumsfeld has the gall to label Iraqi tactics as "terrorist".

Forget this talk of "war crimes" -- as if any kind of military attack, today, in the twenty-first century, could possibly be considered civilized or honorable. Shall we send George W. Bush to the Hague? I can just hear him snickering. Impeach him, instead, for his palpable high crimes and misdemeanors. Send him packing, and support our troops by bringing them home.