Im with you ! I know and understand people don't like to see things this way, but I never saw any good argument as to why this nuance between legal/legitimate and illegal/illegitimate power should be taken into account in theory (other than practical matters, like it would be kinda hard to organize any other way now)
Yeah, this is what makes one legal and the other one not. I suppose that in your opinion, being legal and following rules of war makes it better and I would agree, it seems reasonably better. But is it good though ? To my eyes, killing and spreading terror remains bad, legally or not. If we add some other parameter, it may even be worse to do it legally : the scale of destruction is far worse when a violent group is legal (and so financed and supported by whole countries).
The result of the analysis depends on what parameters you choose : is it legal ? Is it big ? What are the motives ? You can choose what you want, and that's probably why we (I assume this here) have different opinions. My wonder is : why should we focus mostly or entirely on the legal aspect/parameter when analysing things like violence and power ?
(If i misunderstood what you said, sorry by advance)
Yeah, I can understand the initial trust in law, and maybe debatting it later. This is not my way of thinking but i admit it's really reasonable.
For the terror, my reflexion is the following : army/cops try to maintain a specific system in place and have 2 ways to do so. For people who (more or less) actively defy their authority, they take violent actions (kidnapping, pressure, wounding, killing, etc). For people who are not (yet) actively defying their authority, they hope that their violent actions will make people afraid of them, so they do not act against authority. I refer to thz first part as killing (though it's not only killing but more generally violent actions against people), and the second part as terror.
So, imho, though war crimes may spray more terror in a single act than usual army stuff, both spray terror in their own way.
I didn't watch tat much movies, but maybe you're right and this all is just me being dumb or disconnected from reality. Maybe I'm also biased by my interactions with cops and/or soldiers (which were mostly bad experiences).
I guess CAF is canadian army ? I think during time of peace, the army does not take that much violent actions against its own population (although cops do). So it's more about the second part of spreading fear to keep control : if anyone goes against their power, they will be allowed to take these violent actions. I confess that I do not know much about canadian army, so maybe I'm wrong. But I think violence and terror are only clearly visible during periods of tension, and as Canada seems to be quite peaceful, maybe violence and terror are juste dimmed for now.
I do not consider violence and terror as goals of military : i sincerely believe that most people in armies have no interest in them, and that they are here for other reasons (patriotism, security, a sense of belonging, etc). I think violence and terror are rather aspects or consequences of military : you need them to achieve other goals, which could be positive (control, security, enforcing the State). Good actions (summarized by "capturing hearts and minds" if i understood), are also aspects/consequences/tools armies may use to reach these goals.
So, to my eyes, making good things remains compatible with using terror, because this one relies on the mere possibility of violence. It also seems compatible with violence itself, if you consider both can affect different targets at the same time. All of these are tools they may need for other goals, positive or not. But I remain quite certain that violence and terror are necessary consequences in the wide panel of actions an army can take, despite the goodwill of every person implied.
Not sure if this is clear or clever though, sorry if anything sounds dumb and bothers you.
Iran to designate Canadian army as a terrorist entity ( islamabadpost.com.pk )