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Proportionality in war is about harm and therefore damage to civilian property must be included in that calculation. Civilian property being targeted because, and only because, it is civilian property can never be justified.
‘… when civilian protection is at the heart of the mission - as in most current operations - “superfluous civilian injury or destruction of civilian property is, in the short term, nearly always at odds with mission accomplishment,”… The perception of such civilian harm has the same effect on mission accomplishment.’
Laurie R. Blank, ‘Military Operations and Media Coverage: The Interplay of Law and Legitimacy’, in George Lucas (ed.), Routledge Handbook of Military Ethics, (Routledge, Abingdon, 2015), p355.
