Intent and the Law of War
A United Nations human rights panel says it found "reasonable grounds" to believe that two U.S. airstrikes in Iran constituted war crimes. In this CBS News conversation with Major Garrett, Elliot Ackerman examines the findings and the central question of intent when assessing civilian casualties during armed conflict.
Civilian Casualties in Armed Conflict
Drawing on his experience as a Marine veteran and former CIA officer, Ackerman discusses the distinction between tragic civilian deaths resulting from military operations and the intentional targeting of civilians. He argues that determining criminality requires careful examination of what military planners knew and intended when a strike was authorized.
War, Accountability and Moral Equivalency
The conversation broadens to competing claims about U.S. military actions, terrorism, and accountability. Ackerman cautions against collapsing fundamentally different conduct into simple moral equivalencies and discusses why those distinctions matter when evaluating decisions made in complex conflicts.