People fundamentally misunderstand what war is. It's not a nice thing- its back to the state of nature- collateral damage, civilian slaughter, great suffering. It is back to nasty, brutish and short lives. But we try to put a good face on it with these ridiculous rules of engagement, the use of impersonal machinery, references to "international law" and the feel good shit about how we are helping peasants.

When you decide to enter conflict- you better add prolonged civilian slaughter and suffering to the moral calculation. And if that is too much for your sensibilities- then don't enter the conflict to begin with. I'm sick of this half-assed- we can both engage in warfare all over the place and simultaneously put a happy face and happy rules on a brutish situation.

By that standard, the last worthwhile war was probably WWII. And they didn't play by chickenshit rules- they firebombed dresden, executed SS when captured and nuked japan.