War is a terrible thing to see and to be a part of, sometimes necessary, but often not necessary or even reasonably justified. The fact that a so-called civilized world, that ought and should know better, continues to so frequently deal with issues and conflict by the deliberate and premeditated violence against the other, is a reflection that nations aren’t really all that civilized, at all; and further to the point, when it comes to war crimes, we see that consistently those that hold others accountable for those war crimes, are seldom independent parties, but rather are typically the victors of a given war, punishing those then that are the losers of such.
It would be one thing if war consisted exclusively of the battle between combatants on either side, not necessarily fair in the sense of personnel or war materiel, but at least involving those that have signed up to be soldiers or have been conscripted to do so, fighting then against one another. Regrettably, that isn’t the way that war is being fought in the present day, of which, time and time again, women, children, and non-combatants of every type, are considered by the other to be “fair” targets to kill, for purposes that are really actually quite unfathomable. The excuses so used to indiscriminately bombard and shoot the other, and therefore to kill civilians are pretty much hollow and of no merit.
It is a very strange world, and an unjust one, that makes sure to hold accountable individuals that kill other individuals of which this then is properly designated as murder -- but when soldiers basically do the very same thing, or the armaments as directed by military personnel clearly are directed to the killing of civilians, and of which these given actions pretty much never end up holding anyone accountable for such, then there we have the most serious of contradictions. In other words, to kill one’s neighbor, deliberately, is murder. On the other hand, to kill an enemy civilian, just because they are in the wrong place at the wrong time, or simply because they are found to be annoying, or in the way, isn’t considered to be murder, at all.
The reality of the situation is that the killing of civilians, should be seen as murder, because that is what it actually is. While there may well be exceptions to a given incident being appropriately classified as murder, the default view should be that every civilian death so involving soldiers that do the firing or bombardiers that do the bombing, should be seen as a capital offense and those that are committing these crimes, should be held accountable.
The bottom line is quite clearly this, when nation-states are permitted to massacre as many civilians as they so are wont to do, under whatever dubious reasoning they so profess, without ever having to suffer any meaningful consequences for these violent acts, then the amount of women, children, and non-combatants suffering death, injuries, and privations, will continue to be what we so see today, because those that are permitted to kill civilians with impunity, are for a certainty, going to continue doing such.