This has one immediately paradoxical implication: namely, that if unjust combatants fight without violating the rules governing the conduct of war, all their individual acts of war are permissible; yet these individual acts together constitute a war that is unjust and therefore impermissible.
After seven rounds, the combatants have fought to a draw.
They may be prudish when it comes to displaying their legs, but today's combatants have fought for the right to bare arms.
And since the late eighties a bewildering number of combatants have fought a savage, irregular war that, in a steady daily toll of killing, has cost, depending on whom you believe, between thirty to eighty thousand lives.
If that exempted them from liability for posing a threat, it would also exempt just combatants who fight in defense only because they and their innocent compatriots have been unjustifiably attacked.
Just as the U.S. military succeeded in splintering the Sunni insurgency in Iraq, winning over former combatants to fight on our side against al-Qaida through the "Sons of Iraq" program, there's no question that rivalries and ideological differences among insurgents offer the U.S. a shot at dividing the enemy.
The event, which is headlined by a light heavyweight title fight between incumbent champion Liam McGeary and Tito Ortiz, also features a four-man, one-night tournament, paying homage to the early days of MMA, when combatants would fight multiple times in a single night.
A "war" (and all its implications regarding presidential powers and illegitimate combatants) should be fought only with the agents of another government, and this government must be recognized by the United Nations or by some definition beyond the ability to conduct hostilities against the United States or its allies.
The trouble began when hundreds of Malian combatants who had fought to defend the late Libyan leader, Muammar Gaddafi, fled back home with weapons at the end of last year and formed the most powerful Tuareg-led rebel group the region has known - the Azawad National Liberation Movement MNLAAzawad National Liberation Movement MNLA
Like other arena combatants, the retiarius fought barefoot.
