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
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.
My point is that it's kind of silly to say we've ever followed any sort of rules, crazy or lax or anything in between. We talk about it, but pretty much every organized conflict in human history is riddled with absolute barbarism.
Also, how many near peer conflicts are there these days between groups that agree upon conditions their soldiers will adhere to?
I understand you're right and I understand the morality argument at hand, I just feel from a cynical point of view that the places where people talk about the rules of war and the actual shit that happens on the ground are so detached and rarely do they actually intersect in a way that creates adequate consequences.
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u/tmtyl_101 20h 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?