You have basically espoused the cause of the character Tavington from the movie The Patriot. He was eager to get all those “treasonous b*****ds” to surrender to the Crown by going after their families. Yes, there are rules in civilized warfare. You don’t burn homes, kill civilians at random, or rape women. You can say, “well Sherman was just trying to end the war fast.” But you can look at a lot of things that people like Hitler did in their wars and say the same thing. Doesn’t make it right.
the idea of ‘’rules of warfare’’ is a joke. By your logic the bombing campaign bt the Allies in WW2 would be a ‘’war crime’’ of the highest order. You destroy not only your enemy but his ability to wage war by destroying his factories, his centers of command and control, his lines of communication , his roads, railroads, bridges and you kill the people who work in those armament factories, who drive the trains and or trucks which bring troops and weapons to the front. And that means you kill civilians. War is a brutal ugly, horrific thing and the idea of ‘’rules’’ and ‘’civilized warfare’’ is so much bs.