PROVIDING COMMENTARY AND INPUT

The Manual does not pretend to have everything right. Given the magnitude, importance, and complexity of that which is covered in the Manual, and given the range of legitimately varying beliefs as to how its provisions should be read, it should be viewed as a starting point, a living document. It will continually be reviewed, analyzed, discussed, and possibly revised in order to “better get it right.” To that end, those who would report errors and provide comments, suggestions, and rewrites, to include those whose positions are the opposite of those found in the Manual, are encouraged to do so – make your comment here or start a new conversation.

Commentary, positions, and recommendations submitted will be posted on the website provided they are constructive. Unless there is a compelling reason to do otherwise, the contributor should provide his or her name, gender, age, city and state/country, profession, whether a veteran or active duty and, if so, their rank and military branch, unit(s), and conflict(s) in which they served. This will aid in helping the author of the Manual better understand how various positions and language of the Manual resonate with and are interpreted by those with different backgrounds.

If you do not wish your comment or other input to be posted, please indicate at the beginning of your submission. If you wish what you write to be posted but not your identity, please provide the reason.

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Cicero once wrote Silent enem leges inter arma, commonly translated as “In times of war, the law falls silent.” While not this bleak, the reality on the battlefield is that reasonable, moral conduct is situational and that the custom of combatants—not formal law—often prevails, with justice dispensed for actions on the battlefield, not according to formal law or that which is necessarily right or just, but as those with power see fit.

Vietnam Combat Veteran

Civilization is a hopeless race to find remedies for the evils it creates.

Jean Jacques Rousseau

[T]he treaty regime as a whole need not nor should be held to a standard of strict compliance but to a level of overall compliance that is “acceptable” in the light of the interests and concerns the treaty is designed to safeguard.

Abram and Antonia Handler Chayes
“On Compliance,” International Organizations, 1993