Saturday, April 17, 2021

Deal With Users of Human Shields

I don't accept the Geneva Convention because it was written by communists, but something Geneva-like is a good idea. For the sake of argument let's pretend the Geneva Convention doesn't suck.

When someone breaks the contract, respond by breaking the contract.

Using blinding lasers.

Using blinding lasers targetting with facial recognition technology. Imagine a little screen which marks the individual faces it has identified, you highlight the criminal, and then the system automatically blinds them for life without harming the hostage. Don't have to worry about unsteady human aim. Maybe only one eye is visible, so it waits for someone to flinch or whatever, revealing the other eye and blinding that too. Problem: solved. With little bonus 'fuck you' for breaking the rules.

Anything else banned by the Convention that seems useful: go ahead and use it. Maybe they're using good goggles. Thus: landmine their holdout and simply walk away. Their options are now: give up or get fucked.

While certainly in extremis you can shoot the hostages, if war crimes are on the table you have much better options. 

However, never negotiate. This merely leads to future hostages, who, in a real country, would be able to sue you for encouraging hostage-taking.

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