>Countries largely follow the rules because nobody wants a free-for-all war with no rules. And somehow these rules tend to put restrictions on things which are

>Countries largely follow the rules because nobody wants a free-for-all war with no rules. And somehow these rules tend to put restrictions on things which are a force multiplier for smaller forces against larger ones or would make it very costly for a larger country to attack a smaller one. They protect the incumbents. It makes sense why big militaries would want rules like this - this makes it much less costly for big countries to war with smaller ones. Russia didn't want Ukraine to have nukes. A few decades later Russia invaded Ukraine. It is okay for a US drone to strike a target and kill civilians. The civilians will just be defined as "enemy combatants" and the world moves on. However, if people from that same place somehow manage to kill the drone operator then that would be a terror attack.