Acceptable “collateral damage”? Taking innocent life in conducting the “war on terrorism”

Russian troops were slaughtered in the initial ill-conceived, poorly coordinated attack on Grozny, the Chechen capital, an attack that started on New Year’s Eve, 1994.1 Ultimately, the Russians relied primarily on air strikes and artillery against Grozny, inflicting thousands of civilian casualties. Ironically, most of the civilians were ethnic Russians, who had no place to flee to, rather than Chechens. Before the assault most Chechens had fled the city to stay with relatives.