There are many here who say that war has never been a humane activity and so this release is no surprise.

But the doctrine of Just War has existed for centuries and has been practiced more or less successfully at times.

Particularly, to my knowledge, the European powers after Westphalia, where only professional armies took the field, bought their supplies rather than pillaged and treated their captives with dignity.

There were exceptions, probably, but on the whole the wars fought were not bitter struggles where any means necessary was advocated