Publisher's Synopsis
This work is a comprehensive evaluation of the effects generated by the laws of war on America's current approach to warfighting. It examines the use of counterinsurgency operations as a convenient alternative to combat operations and achieve a much desired humanization of war. The research conducted for this book focused on theorists and scholars on both sides of the argument and was complemented with real-life experiences on the battlefields where these laws and strategies had their actual effects. This research utilized the recent war in Iraq where the effects produced by COIN and the latest laws of war can be verified due to the United States' total withdraw from this country. Based on the results of the war, the humanitarian disaster being witnessed today in Iraq, and the arguments found throughout the investigation, this research concluded that a humanitarian approach to war will leave the job undone and ends up having the opposite desired effect.
