Elevating The Thugs, Ctd

Norm Geras counters Yglesias:

The opposition Matt sets up here between war and crime - between 'a socially sanctioned form of activity, generally held to be a legally and morally acceptable framework in which to kill people', on the one hand, and murder or mass murder, on the other - is too sharp. War may (sometimes) be legally and morally acceptable, but that doesn't mean there is no criminality within war. There is - as defined by the laws of war. One is not therefore bound to choose between treating individuals as participating in a war and treating them as criminals, if that is what they are.