Our nation has a duty to protect the lives of our soldiers and call them into combat only when necessary for a just end—ideally, serving with allies with whom we have cultivated strong relations of trust. Unfortunately, over the last three decades, the United States and some of its allies have increasingly tried to spare their soldiers through the increased use of bombing and remote-directed auton...
The article argues that the increased use of bombing and autonomous weapons by the United States and some of its allies violates international law principles that prioritize sparing civilian lives. The authors cite examples such as the obliteration of 90 percent of Gaza in an effort to kill Hamas fighters, Israeli strikes on hotels in Beirut, and the American bombing of a girls’ school in Tehran as evidence of this violation. The article suggests that the Trump administration’s policies have exa...