war crimes

'Too bad Khadafi's infant daughter died, one columnist wrote. Too bad, he said, but that's the game of war. Well, if that's the game, then let's get the hell out of it, because it is poisoning us morally, and not solving any problem. It is only continuing and escalating the endless cycle of retaliation which will one day, if we don't kick our habits, kill us all.'

Howard Zinn, in Terrorism over Tripoli

• See this page for all nuggets on crimes of war1, or use the headings in the list below for specific topics.
• See the war laws page for some of the legal documents relating to war (including definitions of 'crimes of peace' and the International Criminal Court's list of 'crimes of war').

1. 1. A sloppy, non-legal use of the term 'war crimes', which I use to cover all criminal acts connected with war. Technically (according to the Nuremberg Charter) war crimes are violations of the laws or customs of war.