Jus In Bello An Engineering Perspective

For these reasons, it may be difficult to acquire reliable data for a given conflict and even more difficult to compare and collate data from different conflicts so as to obtain an overall assessment. However, a critical appraisal of data for some major recent wars has been made [20]. For the war in Bosnia-Herzegovina (1991-1995) 

Manufacturers of weapons frequently make an argument that their most sophisticated weaponry is designed specifically to minimise civilian casualties. The indiscriminate and disproportionate injury and death caused by many modem weapons suggests that such a claim cannot be entirely tme. Empirical evidence is again needed, and a detailed and careful study of casualties in Iraq in the period 2003-2008 has shown that sophisticated weaponry used at a distance resulted in a far greater proportion of indiscriminate civilian deaths of women (46 %) and 

Despite all the videos you see from the Ministry of Defence or the Pentagon, and all the sanitised language describing smart bombs and pinpoint strikes, the scene on the ground has remained remarkably the same for hundreds of years. Craters. Burned houses. Mutilated bodies. Women weeping for children and husbands. Men for their wives, mothers, children [23]. 

Though statistics often focus on deaths, severe injuries are also the cause of immense suffering. Even experienced medical doctors are shocked when they first encounter war injuries, especially those to children [24]. Use of sophisticated weaponry produces a great number of casualties with extreme injuries [25]. Sophisticated weaponry may also have very long-term detrimental effects on civilians, as exemplified by the high incidence of birth defects in Fallujah (Iraq) since 2003 [26] and the many deaths, injuries and dismptions caused by mines and cluster munitions long after they are deployed. 

The search for a technical fix is misguided for a further important reason. As already noted, many of the casualties of war are not the result of major military strikes. They are the result of factors such as the sectarian violence that results from the breakdown of provisions for law and civil order, the collapse of civil infrastructure and the collapse of medical provision. Thus, sophisticated weaponry may increase the initial intensity of conflicts but is very unlikely to promote beneficial outcomes for many civilians. 

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