Analysts seeking an explanation for this slaughter of civilians believe it may be the first sign of ethnic cleansing to come in a region of mixed population.The unending civil war has constrained President Chandrika Kumaratunga.
Much later, after the Taliban had fallen, Britain regained centre-stage as the lead-nation in a small peacekeeping force.But does this mean that America's next air war will be constrained by British political influence, as the war against Serbia was restrained by France?
The story is the opening anecdote in "Lincoln's Code: The Laws of War in American History," John Fabian Witt's sweeping history of American engagement with the idea that the brutality of war should be constrained by humanitarian rules.
Even as his ambassador to the United Nations predicts that the Syrian crisis will escalate to a regional war, Mr. Obama is constrained by limited options and a wariness at home about another military conflict.
Development of the offensive technology of war was not as constrained by technological and economic limitations as was defensive weaponry.
Harper hopes sophisticated travelers won't allow their wanderlust to be constrained by war with Iraq if and when that comes.
President Bush is sending Congress a $2.5 trillion spending plan, constrained by war and record deficits, that seeks to slash spending in a number of popular programs from farm subsidies to poor people's health care.
Reviewing "Lincoln's Code" in Slate, Eric Posner, a professor at the University of Chicago Law School, praised its deep research but questioned the claim that brutalities like Sherman's march through Georgia — let alone the 20th-century "total wars" it foreshadowed — were constrained by any ideals transcending the simple desire to win.
"But of course in the tunnel wars it was so constrained and constricted and so well documented, we know exactly what happened, at what time and what the results were".
"There was an assumption that the way to avert war was to constrain ourselves, instead of having a healthy deterrent".
