Preventing war crimes

Oradour-sur-Glane (F)

At the moment there is much to do about mass killings of civilians by Russian soldiers in the Russian-Ukrainian war. Soldiers who had retreated from the Kyiv region apparently have killed many innocent civilians during the weeks that they occupied the area. In other regions the Russian army has attacked apparently intentionally places where civilians live or where these had gathered in order to leave the war zone. Also this has made that many innocent civilians have been killed. In future, Bucha will be named in one line with Oradour-sur-Glane and Lidice. Also the Ukrainian army is not free from atrocities (see here), albeit it on a much smaller scale and albeit it that in this case the persons intentionally wounded or killed are not civilians but prisoners of war, so soldiers (which doesn’t make it less objectionable). There is great indignation at these facts (supposing that they are facts, and most likely they are), especially at the killing of civilians. Rightly, for intentionally killing innocent civilians and prisoners of war is a war crime. Now it is so that much can be said about why soldiers perform war crimes, but in the end soldiers have mortal weapons at their disposal, which they can or are ordered to use in certain circumstances, and this makes that they must be very aware of when and why to kill. In other words, maybe more than any other person a soldier must be a “moral agent”, so a person who is able “to refrain from behaving inhumanely [and who has] the pro-active power to behave humanly.” (Bandura) Following Aristotle in his Ethica Nicomachea, we can also say that a soldier must be a virtuous person who has the professional skilfulness to apply his virtues. A soldier must know what acting morally is and how to act morally. Which moral virtues then must a soldier possess? That’s what Plato tells us, who distinguishes four so-called cardinal virtues: Prudence (the ability to do the appropriate thing at the right time in the right situation), justice, temperance (moderation or self-restraint), and courage.
Now you may think that this is quite abstract and typically comes from the brain of a philosopher in his ivory tower. Then I can tell you that I found the idea that a soldier is a moral agent and the reference to Aristotle and Plato in this context in a textbook on military ethics written for classes of the Dutch Royal Military Academy. Apparently, also for soldiers nothing is more practical than a good theory. One practical problem is, however, that many soldiers don’t realize that they are moral agents and don’t behave that way, with the result of the possibility of war crimes, when soldiers are in situations that easily make them behave immorally. Even then many do behave morally but too many do not, with terrible consequences as we see now in the Russian-Ukrainian war. Nevertheless, war crimes can be prevented. To my mind, the essence of the methods to prevent war crimes and immoral behaviour is making soldiers aware of the problem during their training plus good leadership. The latter means that commanders at all levels must not be only aware of the problem, but they must also be attentive to the problem before, during and after an action. So education and awareness are the essence of preventing war crimes. But let’s look what the textbook on military ethics says about it, which is in fact an elaboration of what I just said. The book mentions four ways to prevent war crimes:
1) Application of national and international wartime offences acts. However, in war situations it is difficult to arrest war criminals; war crimes done by own soldiers are seen as less important; war criminals are often arrested only long after the act; and war criminals usually don’t think of the possibility of being arrested when committing their crimes. So the preventive effect of wartime criminal acts is often insufficient.
2) Education, training, learning skills and doing practical exercises how to apply what you have learned. So soldiers and commanders must be taught and trained to behave morally in difficult situations.
3) Soldiers must learn that it is something special to wear a uniform; that it’s an honour to wear a uniform; and that the crime of one soldier is seen by others outside the army as a crime done by the whole army.
4) Moral character building. Soldiers must learn which values are important to defend and which values the army stands for and he or she must be aware why s/he wants to defend them. The soldier must learn that there are situations in which “there is something worth living for that is more important than one’s own skin”.
Maybe war crimes can never be completely prevented, but they are not natural phenomena. Human beings must learn to behave morally, and they can. 

Source
A.H.M. van Iersel, Th. A. van Baarda (red.), Militaire ethiek. Morele dilemma’s van militairen in theorie en praktijk. Budel: Damon; chapter 2. Quotes are from this chapter.