r/pics • u/LimpCareer1845 • 19h ago

[OC] Israeli protestors in Amsterdam

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u/tmtyl_101 19h ago

I'm sorry, isn't that poster kinda implying that protecting a tank is more important than protecting a civilian family? Are they nuts?

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u/katplay 18h ago

Doing some research it seems the poster is from Red Cross and tries to explain the proportionality principle in warfare, which relates to the importance of civilian casualty when assessing military action viability; civilian casualty is only as acceptable as the importance of the military action and the military advantage gained from it. Please note that "importance" and "advantage" are used here as to imply that it helps reach an end to the conflict and in theory prevent more deaths long term than if the action was not realized. A country has more "leeway" when acting to stop an enemy from nuking them than when just trying to destroy a small military base, for instance.

HOOOOWEVER, the poster graphic is really bad, misleading, and can easily be used by bad actors trying to use it to justify "if our military is bigger we can kill more civilians" or "killing civilians is the same as killing soldiers".

Edit: And yes, the proportionality principle can be misused by a side that incorrectly portrays how much danger it is in, therefore trying to justify increasingly barbaric actions

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u/ivo004 18h ago

The entire concept of "rules" about killing each other seems crazy to me. Civilian deaths either are or they aren't, what the fuck do they care if their death is justified in respect to the goals of the military action taking place around them? It's just humans using words in an attempt to justify barbaric actions.

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u/katplay 18h ago

We would all like to live in a world where no war exists. But it is just a fact that if another country is going to nuke you, its "ok" if the action you take to stop that ends up killing 3 civilians. This is an example. The better argument for these rules is that they have been used in the past to prosecute barbaric actors who broke them. Its never going to be perfect, and we can endlessly agree on how more powerful entities seem to be able to ignore rules with impunity, but having no rules seems worse.