by Travis Normand
December 28, 2016

*THIS POST HAS BEEN UPDATED (SEE BELOW)*

The following was published at TheBlaze.com on December 8, 2016 (emphasis added).

Exclusive: TheBlaze’s Jason Buttrill shoots at ISIS members and shares footage from the Mosul front, by Brandon Morse, December 8, 2016 at 10:15 pm

TheBlaze researcher Jason Buttrill is bringing you exclusive footage from the Mosul offensive in Iraq, and as you will see, the action is getting a bit extreme. Currently, Buttrill is on the front line, seeing the fight to take back Iraq street by street. Not only is he having some interesting conversations, and seeing some unbelievable sites, he’s in the thick of the action.

For instance, Buttrill recently took some shots at ISIS as he was out getting reports from the front line.

Click HERE for the rest of the article.

When a reporter, correspondent, researcher, journalist, or other non-combatant takes direct participation in hostilities, he/she loses any protection afforded to them by the LOAC.

If a journalist who is working in a “war” zone takes direct participation in hostilities, they lose any protection that they are afforded as a journalist for at least as so long as they are taking direct participation. Further, not only is such action unbecoming of a journalist, it shows a complete lack of respect for the law and confuses who might be a legitimate object of attack. Such confusion puts other journalists and protected persons at risk.

Richard White covered this story over at Insurgentsia.com, and so I will refrain from going on a long-winded rant about Mr. Buttrill. However, I will say this, as Mr. Buttrill was apparently in the Marines at one point in time I am sure he has been instructed on the LOAC. Therefore, he should know that the U.S. military prides itself on abiding by the LOAC and that it is the non-state groups such as ISIS and al-Queda who are notorious for failing to follow the law. It is disappointing to see someone fall victim to the same mentality as those who fight for these terrorist organizations.

Note:  Politico.com has reported that due to his conduct Mr. Buttrill was pulled from his assignment.  Also, as you can see below, Buttrill has since apologized via twitter.com for his actions.

*UPDATE DECEMBER 30, 2016:

I have interacted with many people on twitter who believe Mr. Buttrill has done nothing wrong and that he should not have been taken off  his assignment. Most of these people argue that armed non-state groups like ISIS attack and kill journalists regardless of their obligations under the LOAC and therefore Buttrill is justified in taking shots at them. They further argue that he is not giving up any protections afforded by the LOAC as ISIS doesn’t recognize or adhere to those protections, and thus he is not putting any journalists in harms way (as they already are). While I understand these sentiments, my counter argument would be that Buttrill was not exercising his right to self-defense and killing another human is murder when it is not justified. We cannot complain that ISIS (or anyone else) is killing or harming our journalists if our journalists are out there taking a direct participation in hostilities.

This is a reminder that there are far too many who have a total lack of understanding and respect for the law of war. This includes terrorists, unlawful combatants, insurgents, non-state actors, and unfortunately average citizens.

by Travis Normand
December 28, 2016

This is a great opinion piece that was posted on WashingtonPost.com. I highly recommend taking a moment to read it. You can find the entire piece at WashingtonPost.com, as I have reposted only a part of it below.

The emphasis on counting civilian casualties ends up helping the Islamic State
by Rachel E. VanLandingham and Geoffrey S. Corn
September 7, 2016
WashingtonPost.com

This emphasis on precise, casualty-averse warfare may be distorting the public’s understanding of war and law. The public accounting of every allegation of coalition-caused civilian casualties on the Islamic State battlefield, and the outcome of every civilian casualty investigation, is conditioning both domestic and international audiences to expect that international law demands analogously low levels of civilian casualties in all wars and that this level can be met while successfully prosecuting the conflict. This is wrong. It is also dangerous.

* * *

The Pentagon should accompany its transparency initiatives with a much stronger reminder that the law of war often, even if unfortunately, permits civilian casualties when necessary to accomplish legitimate military objectives. And that it is almost always the Islamic State’s fault, not the coalition’s, when such casualties are inflicted. In an asymmetric war against an enemy that violates the law by hiding and fighting among civilians, these casualties are frequently a calculated price of attacks aimed at destroying enemy fighters and other military targets.

That is, civilian casualties often are the product of strikes conducted despite the knowledge that civilians are likely to be harmed. As long as coalition forces ensure that the law of war’s yardsticks are met — that the military advantage to be gained by a strike outweighs the potential harm to civilians, and that reasonable care has been taken in choice of weapons and tactics to minimize the effect on civilians — civilians may, and unfortunately will often be, killed and injured. That is the horrible essence of modern, lawful war, and a burden that our young warriors carry into battle. But the responsibility for the vast majority of this suffering lies at the feet of the illicit enemy.

Confusion regarding the law of war only incentivizes the Islamic State and similar groups to continue their illegal methods of fighting among civilians. In this vein, if the Pentagon continues to over-emphasize the rarity of civilian casualties during coalition airstrikes, it risks sending potentially delegitimizing shockwaves once airstrikes are used in close air support of ground forces retaking cities and villages, in which the Islamic State’s use of human shields and other illegal tactics will almost inevitably result in much higher civilian casualty numbers.

Read the entire original article HERE.

by Travis Normand
December 28, 2016

The Defense Department recently published a new revision to its Law of War manual. This is only the second time the document has been changed since its initial release in 2015.

The first set of revisions focused on journalists and altered some language in order to provide greater protection to reporters working in “war” zones. This second/newest set of revisions attempts to provide more clarity on how the Defense Department views laws concerning human shields and civilians working on military objects.

For the best coverage on the newly revised Law of War manual, I would suggest visiting JustSecurity.org as they have read, digested, and written extensively on the changes to the manual.

While I would suggest reading everything JustSecurity.org has published on the topic, I understand that your time may be limited, so I am listing some of the best postings they have to offer:

1. How to Read the Department of Defense’s Revised Law of War Manual, by Ryan Goodman, December 22, 2016, JustSecurity.org, found here: https://www.justsecurity.org/35786/read-department-defenses-revised-law-war-manual/
2. Initial Observations on the Law of War Manual Revision: “Three ups/Three downs,” by Geoffrey S. Corn, December 14, 2016, JustSecurity.org, found here: https://www.justsecurity.org/35531/initial-observations-law-war-manual-revision-three-upsthree-downs/

You can download a copy of the Department of Defense Law of War Manual, June 2015 (Updated December 2016) version HERE.

by Travis Normand

This article appeared in The Jerusalem Post on 5 May 2015.  The first paragraph includes a quote by Israel’s Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon that captures one of the many reasons why it is so important for us to have, and follow, the law of armed conflict.

After all the controversy and war crimes allegations following last summer’s Gaza war, Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon said Tuesday that “I can still look at myself in the mirror.”

Ya’alon was speaking at a Shurat Hadin – Israel Law Center conference in Jerusalem, where he addressed the hot-button issues of lawfare, the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign, and general efforts to delegitimize Israel.

Following the LOAC allows those who engage in combat (whether it be soldiers, commanders, administrators, and/or executives) to walk away from such armed conflicts knowing that they followed the law and that they did the right thing.