[TML] War rules

[shadow at shadowgard.com]

On 2 Jun 2008 at 9:43, Knapp wrote:

> > Then too, at *some* point you must being on a course that will take you
> > down.  That's the whole point of landing.  So such a "miss rule" would need
> > minimum speed and distance at which it counts.
> >
> 
> Exactly, at some point the vector is safe or at least as safe as it can be
> but other vectors are death to the planet. It was said that they explosion
> is small compared to the planet but that really depends on the vector.
> Someone really large and well armored, thrusting at 6gs right at the planet
> for a long distance so that they can drop bombs with minimum exposure might
> really damage a planet. This would be a war crime. Other vectors fall into
> the acceptable risk category.

Sorry, but no. Neither Dresden, the firebombimg raids on Tokyo nor 
even Hiroshima and Nagasaki were war crimes. Ditto for the German 
bombings of London. 

If it's carried out by a legitimate military force, and for a 
militarily justifiable reason (rather than just trying to 
demoralize/terrorize the civilian populace) it's *not* a war crime.

If it's carried out by a non-military force, it's an act of terrorism 
and *still* not a war crime.

Unl;ess the world is undefended, that ship is gonna be targetted by a 
lot of stuff. Even a few suicide ships trying to crash into it before 
it gets too close (if they can). 

If it gets busted into small pieces they'll mostly be destroyed 
before they hit the ground. If there are enough and they are moving 
fast enough, then the heat flash may cause some firestorms on the 
planet. Otherwise, it's just damage.

But frankly, there's no *reason* to attack a planet that way. Not 
when you can do just as well by launching well stealthed projectiles 
from AU away. Being in space, you don't have to worry about stuff 
like wind deflection and the other stuff that gives artillery 
headaches.

At 6 g, you can can reach 1% of c in 14 hours. Let's assume they 
detect the projectiles at 10 light seconds. That gives them less than 
17 minutes to do anything about them. And the ship that launched them 
hours or days before was never at any risk.

So why bother with the type of attack you gave above?

--
Leonard Erickson (aka shadow)
shadow at shadowgard dot com