John Henry Newman Quotes
There is such a thing as legitimate warfare: war has its laws; there are things which may fairly be done, and things which may not be done.
Newman, John Henry. Apologia Pro Vita Sua. Longman, Green, Longman, Roberts, and Green, 1864, p. 417.
In WWII the Germans bombed London causing many civilian casualties. In retaliation, the allies bombed German cities such as Hamburg and others. The resolution’s effect was very short lived. There are similar restrictions in the Geneva Conventions but again, if one side breaks the conventions, most other sides will retaliate. Note that in the 3rd condition, the one that is most contentious in the 21st century “negligence” is the operative word. An error or mistake is not necessarily or even usually negligence. Many people believe that international law prohibits the bombing of civilians from reading 3) and similar statements from treaties. However, an honest error, mistake or equipment malfunction which kills
This is true. There never has been any International law that made a belligerent responsible for civilian damages and deaths that were the result of collateral damage. However, the United States over the years, more so than any other country. Provided huge amount of aid to the citizens of the enemy nations although there was no legal obligation to do so.
This forerunner of the Geneva Convention is referred to as “Adamnan’s Law.”
In the Afghanistan and Iraq Wars the U. S. government was much criticized for not treating captured Taliban and others as prisoners war. This Article is their main justification. The Taliban and Al Quida did not meet most of the criteria and therefore the convention did not apply to them.
John Henry Newman was an English theologian and poet, first an Anglican priest and later a Catholic priest and cardinal, who was an important and controversial figure in the religious history of England in the 19th century. He was known nationally by the mid-1830s, and was canonised as a saint in the Catholic Church in 2019.
