Combatant status dilates to cover membership, collaboration, and presumed sympathy

Evidence

Once the detection of direct participation in hostilities becomes almost impossible for the pure and simple reason that there is no longer any combat, it becomes necessary to mobilize other techniques of detection and also other categories to designate the enemy. The status of combatant tends to be diluted in such a way as to extend to any form of membership of, collaboration with, or presumed sympathy for some militant organization, whether or not there is any link with its armed branch. What we now have is an insidious switch from the category of “combatants” to that of “suspected militants.” This combatant = militant equivalence has the effect of extending the right to kill well beyond the classic legal boundaries and conferring an indefinite elasticity on the concept of a legitimate target. — Grégoire Chamayou, A Theory of the Drone, 481

Categorization

• XREF: Feeds the reader’s interest in new ethical and political norms of war — how impunity is legislated by semantic drift. — connects to: An enemy can be converted into an ally through fair dealing and respect — , A Year of World Stories, 13079; Monolithic Islam assumptions enable guilt-by-association targeting — Green, Todd H, The Fear of Islam_ An Introduction to…, 55; Combatant status is unascertainable when enemies wear no uniforms and all carry weapons — Grégoire Chamayou, A Theory of the Drone, 477 (+2 more)

Related

• Combatant status is unascertainable when enemies wear no uniforms and all carry weapons (similarity 0.82)

Broader Connections

• Monolithic Islam assumptions enable guilt-by-association targeting #expands (0.85) — Green, Todd H, The Fear of Islam_ An Introduction to…, 55
• Formal similarity of social position creates solidarity regardless of personal character #expands (0.85) — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 595
• Social orders integrate at the level of attributed motives #corroborates (0.80)