Review: Pros and Cons
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 08 17, 2012
A chronological listing of atrocities and war crimes from the Biblical King David to a couple years ago. The author does list all the major ones and many of the minor ones, if there is such a thing as a minor war crime. In most cases the author presents some background to the event[s] covering the whys and wherefors but after awhile there is a depressing similarity to all of them. Most, particularly the earlier ones, are presented objectively but on occasion it slips into a subjective analysis. One trap the author falls into is presenting obvious propaganda as fact: Town X is bombed by Force Y and the only casualties are infants, mothers, civilians, only targets hit are hospitals, orphanages, etc. etc. etc. I always wondered why if all they hit is hospitals why not aim at the hospitals and hit a legitimate military target by accident. There is the unanswered philosophical question: What constitutes a civilian? Is an unarmed individual providing intelligence and logistical support to an armed force a civilian? Is the man working in a bomb factory providing munitions to an armed force a civilian? A civilian or part of the logistical tail? A for effort regardless..quite an extensive work. A couple spelling errors, no big deal, some obviously false statistics, but 4 stars certainly.