Kasher and Yadlin formally ranked national soldier lives above enemy civilian lives

Evidence

Their aim was to revise, from top to bottom, the established principles underlying the ethics and law of armed conflicts. The most radical of their attacks concerned the principle of noncombatant immunity: “According to the ordinary conception underlying the distinction between combatants and non-combatants, the former have a lighter package of state duties than the latter. Consequently, the duty to minimize casualties among combatants during combat is last on the list of priorities… . We reject such conceptions because we consider them to be immoral. A combatant is a citizen in uniform… . His blood is as red and thick as that of citizens who are not in uniform. His life is as precious as the life of anyone else.” From this, one was supposed to conclude that the preservation of the lives of the subjects of the nation-state is the supreme duty, which must in all cases and at whatever cost be placed above the duty to minimize the losses of noncombatants in the enemy camp. This meant that in a war situation, minimizing risks for an Israeli soldier took precedence over the duty to minimize “collateral risks” for a child in Gaza. — Grégoire Chamayou, A Theory of the Drone, 439 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Soldiers’ lives were redefined as citizens deserving protection above enemy civilians. — Grégoire Chamayou, A Theory of the Drone, 439; The 2005 Kasher-Yadlin article reversed noncombatant and combatant priority in war ethics

Related

• Soldiers’ lives were redefined as citizens deserving protection above enemy civilians. (similarity 0.95)
• A state can prioritize its own soldiers’ lives over unlimited foreign civilian casualties. (similarity 0.86)
• Just-war theorists reject prioritizing own soldiers’ safety over enemy civilians’ safety. (similarity 0.81)
• US ground forces in Afghanistan and Iraq also privileged soldier protection over civilians. (similarity 0.79)
• Protecting national lives in war increases those lives’ social precariousness (similarity 0.79)

Broader Connections

• The 2005 Kasher-Yadlin article reversed noncombatant and combatant priority in war ethics #expands (0.90)
• Soldiers’ lives were redefined as citizens deserving protection above enemy civilians. #corroborates (0.85) — Grégoire Chamayou, A Theory of the Drone, 439