evidence on their side, no one can accuse human rights professionals of abandoning the field to the military’s legal mandarins. Rights experts have gained relevance and access, communicating and, at times, collaborating with armed forces in response to humanitarian crises. No doubt some of the ethos of human rights rubbed off on military officials in the process, but perhaps at the cost of some critical distance on the part of human rights. With regard to the Iraq war, for example, most rights groups remained skeptical of the Coalition’s ad bellum claims—Human Rights Watch flatly denied that the war constituted a humanitarian intervention—but at the same time seemed to endorse the in bello manner of war the Pentagon aspired to, namely using sophisticated weapons to destroy physical power and infrastructure while limiting civilian casualties (Roth 2004).
Civilians in New Wars
The recent attention to “new” wars has led many analysts to say that the old rules no longer apply. In such conflicts, material capabilities, strategy and tactics, and ethics and etiquette differ sharply between the warring parties. What is lacking above all, say humanitarian lawyers, is the moderating force of reciprocity. Reciprocity in this case refers to the promise of shared norms as well as the threat posed by roughly equal capabilities. In asymmetric warfare one side’s competitive advantage may be heavy bombing, while the other’s is planting homemade improvised explosive devices, or IEDs. Any restraint that tit for tat might have engendered evaporates. If they’re not playing fair, why should we? As reciprocity has waned, so has confidence in IHL. One skeptic suggests the laws of war may have been relevant in an age of “knights and chivalry” but are ill suited to govern today’s wars (quoted in Cardenas 2010:1). White House counsel Alberto Gonzales (2002) advised President George W. Bush that the war against terrorism was “a new kind of war” that rendered the Geneva Conventions “quaint.”
Arguments about asymmetry usually portray states as the vulnerable victims of non-state violence (Winter 2011:495). However, embedded in this language of alarm are certain assumptions about civilians as well. One of the leading tropes of asymmetric wars is the blurring of combatant and noncombatant identities. Belligerents often describe noncombatants as “not really civilians” or “not only civilians” (Slim 2008:183). “There are civilians all over the battlefield,” notes David Kennedy (2006b:113–14). “Not only insurgents dressed as refugees, but special forces dressing like natives, private contractors dressing like Arnold Schwarzenegger, and all the civilians running the complex technology and logistical chains ‘behind’ modern warfare … civil affairs officers run after the troops dispensing compensation and apologetic words in a campaign for hearts and minds.” Adam Roberts (2009:19) describes the status of civilians as “multi-faceted and complex: they are both agents and victims; both co-players in the theatre of war and objects of propaganda; both participants in the war economy and protected persons in the laws of war.”
These characterizations are surely true, but they can read too much ambiguity into today’s wars. It’s a rare civilian who is plagued by divided identities or mired in complicity and guilt. The ICRC People on War Report describes the “total engagement” of societies in war, though more as victims than as perpetrators. A third of the respondents to the ICRC survey reported that their dwellings had been seriously damaged in fighting. A third were driven from their homes. In Somalia, two-thirds of respondents were displaced. In Afghanistan, the figure was 83 percent. Noncombatants reported that sometimes they were “recruited and pushed and compelled to join with combatants, often from all sides,” and were frequently pressured to provide food or other material support to combatants (ICRC 2000:viii). But very few moonlighted as soldiers. Most were hapless bystanders or unarmed refugees with few options.
As contests between professional soldiers turn into contests for hearts and minds, civilian loyalties are implicated. This is guerrilla warfare redux. “The inhabitant in his home is the center of the conflict,” wrote Col. Roger Trinquier (1964:29), a French commander during the Battle of Algiers. “Like it or not, the two camps are compelled to make him participate in the conflict; in a certain sense, he has become a combatant too.” Michael Walzer notes that the U.S. rules of engagement in Vietnam had “only the appearance of recognizing and attending to the combatant/noncombatant distinction. In fact, they set up a new distinction: between loyal and disloyal, or friendly and hostile noncombatants” (Walzer 1977:193). “You can’t tell the difference between these people at all,” said Marine Sgt. Matt Mardan. “They all look Arab. They all have beards, facial hair. Honestly, it’ll be like walking into China and trying to tell who’s in the Communist party and who’s not. It’s impossible” (Hedges and Al-Arian 2008:46).
Конец ознакомительного фрагмента.
Текст предоставлен ООО «ЛитРес».
Прочитайте эту книгу целиком, купив полную легальную версию на ЛитРес.
Безопасно оплатить книгу можно банковской картой Visa, MasterCard, Maestro, со счета мобильного телефона, с платежного терминала, в салоне МТС или Связной, через PayPal, WebMoney, Яндекс.Деньги, QIWI Кошелек, бонусными картами или другим удобным Вам способом.
