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Ukrainian drones now spray 4,000° F thermite streams right into Russian trenches (arstechnica.com)

submitted 2 months ago by return2ozma@lemmy.world to c/technology@lemmy.world

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[–] ArbitraryValue@sh.itjust.works 239 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (43 children)

This is what international law has to say about incendiary weapons:

It is prohibited in all circumstances to make the civilian population as such, individual civilians or civilian objects the object of attack by incendiary weapons.

It is prohibited in all circumstances to make any military objective located within a concentration of civilians the object of attack by air-delivered incendiary weapons.

It is further prohibited to make any military objective located within a concentration of civilians the object of attack by means of incendiary weapons other than air-delivered incendiary weapons, except when such military objective is clearly separated from the concentration of civilians and all feasible precautions are taken with a view to limiting the incendiary effects to the military objective and to avoiding, and in any event to minimizing, incidental loss of civilian life, injury to civilians and damage to civilian objects.

It is prohibited to make forests or other kinds of plant cover the object of attack by incendiary weapons except when such natural elements are used to cover, conceal or camouflage combatants or other military objectives, or are themselves military objectives.

This treeline is clearly not located within a concentration of civilians and it is concealing (or plausibly believed to be concealing) enemy combatants and therefore the use of incendiary weapons is unambiguously legal.

[–] v4ld1z@lemmy.zip 7 points 2 months ago (7 children)

Are all of these "laws" in place because incendiary weapons are especially cruel compared to a simple shot to the dome?

[–] alcoholicorn@lemmy.ml 14 points 2 months ago (3 children)

It's because of their indiscriminate nature.

The US use of napalm on cities in Korea contributed to the nearly 20% of their population that was wiped out.

[–] atlas@sh.itjust.works 5 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Not even mentioning the severe lasting impact it had on generations to come. There are still many who are battling birth defects due to the toxins that remained after the napalm attacks.

[–] Machinist@lemmy.world 2 points 2 months ago

Not that I'm doubting you, but do you have more info on the lasting toxicity of napalm? I hadn't heard of this.

I knew that the defoliant Agent Orange had dioxin contamination that led to all those horrible birth defects and cancers. Also, the contaminating nature of depleted uranium is obvious as a heavy metal but I think we still don't grasp the magnitude of the problem. Iraq and Afghanistan will likely be seeing awful effects in future generations.

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