If war was just a big rock-paper-scissors tournament, then we could save all of our money and spend it on something more useful. Like a colony on Mars or lower taxes. Something like that. Unfortunately, we have to blow stuff up and shoot all of the bad guys until they surrender. We seek to win by any means necessary. Any means. Except when there are special rules that everyone has to follow that make little sense.
That gasoline smell ... smells like ... Victory.
Why War Shouldn't Have Arbitrary Rules
War is a means of resolving a conflict through force. When dealing with force, there is nothing that is off limits. If the other side begs for you not to burn all of their soybean fields, you can burn their soybean fields if you feel like that will improve your odds of domination. Unless, of course, you want to conquer your opponent and keep those soybean fields intact.
We will define an arbitrary rule as a rule that all parties agree upon not to do regardless of the situation. Any arbitrary rule is created by some contract or agreement. The issue with rules and war is that you are essentially ignoring the rules so you can dominate the other side through force. There is no consent with force. Trust me on that.
Rules of War
Not all rules are arbitrary rules. A government can't tell all of it people to kill themselves and expect them to listen. A government will not openly accept their own destruction. So, banning nuclear weapons from war is not an arbitrary rule. There is a thing called mutually assured destruction. Thus, making this a rule makes sense and is not arbitrary. Even if we tear up all of our agreements, we are asking to destroy ourselves if we decide to let the nukes free.
One must follow the rules of war in order to survive, but one does not need to follow arbitrary rules. One example of an arbitrary rule is the ban on chemical weapons. If you use chemical weapons, you won't be making any friends, but nobody is going to nuke your country because you used a chemical weapon. The fact that we place these arbitrary rules in the first makes little sense.
But we are trying to make the world a better place! We are trying to reduce the suffering of people on the battlefield. This is the rational behind this arbitrary rule. Great! Let's make some more.
More Arbitrary Rules
If we can accept one arbitrary rule for war, we can make more. Elon Musk has been pushing against using AI and advanced robotics on the battlefield. Another arbitrary rule! If we are going to take the "force" out of force, then we might as well implement the following arbitrary rules listed below:
- Don't kill or harm people. Rationale: People would prefer not to be killed or harmed.
- Don't destroy property. Rationale: This is a waste of money, unless you are producing the weapons.
Wait, if we follow these rules, then it won't be war anymore. That's my point exactly. You can't make arbitrary rules for war. But that is not stopping us from trying. But let's not be naïve. You can have it one way or another. You can have a traditional war with force with MAD being the only deterrent, or we can implement arbitrary rules. Then we won't have war anymore. Or at least it would be ridiculous if we did.
To Lazy To Read
This video makes the point ... kind of.
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Video: Peter Gabriel - Games Without Frontiers