The paradox of war: War Crime.

In a civilised world where all things inhumane are illegal or at least heavily frowned-upon, killing is obviously outlawed.

A clever loophole to this law is to ‘declare war’ on the group one wishes to kill; in this case the act of murder becomes lawful.

The one hitch in this loophole is that, while in this time of war killing may have become legal, if a potential murder victim has reached hospital grounds or other medical area – this includes the medics themselves – killing them again becomes illegal.

The above ruling makes the aforementioned game of war a little more challenging but assuredly, no less fun for those involved…

The nation of Syria has been recently seen to be flouting these rulings of war, mercilessly killing contenders who have made it to the hospital ‘safe zone’ and who, according to these rules of war, ought to be considered ‘paxt’; Syria are thereby committing the most egregious of war crimes.

…Other law-related technicalities that must be observed while playing war games are as follows: a participant announcing their ‘surrender’ must be immediately excluded from the game but may be ‘captured’ by the ‘dominant’ team; ‘surrendered’ parties must be treated to a ‘standard’ of upkeep in line with their nation’s perception of ‘humane treatment’; ‘torture’ of ‘surrendered’ parties is deemed ‘illegal’ even if ‘surrendered’ party becomes ‘belligerent’ and is ‘really asking for it’.

Furthermore any ‘obscenities’ and ‘atrocities’, the particulars of which will vary according to one’s national background or indeed upbringing, according to the rulings of war, are to be considered ‘bad sportsmanship’ and will not be ‘tolerated’.

Failure to uphold the above ‘rulings of war’ will result in allegations of ‘war crimes’, which is punishable by ‘international reproach’.

Should a nation appear to be committing war crimes yet show no regard to these rulings of war, however, or if a nation such as Syria outright refuses to play by the rules of the game, alas, there is little anyone can do to stop them.

Article by Tim Walker

Edited by Cream O Waugh

Photography by Stu Pad Game