#military necessity

[eretzyisrael]

by John Spencer

Hamas forces indisputably violated multiple laws of war on October 7 in taking Israelis hostage and raping, torturing and directly targeting civilians, as well continuing to attack Israeli population centers with rockets. Years of intelligence assessments and media reports have shown that Hamas also commits war crimes by using human shields for its weapons and command centers and by purposely putting military capabilities in protected sites like hospitals, mosques and schools.

On the other hand, nothing I have seen shows that the Israel Defense Forces are not following the laws of wars in Gaza, particularly when the charges that the IDF is committing war crimes so often come too quickly for there to have been an examination of the factors that determine whether an attack, and the resulting civilian casualties, are lawful. The factors that need to be assessed are the major dimensions of the most commonly agreed to international humanitarian law principles: military necessity, proportionality, distinction, humanity and honor.  

President Joe Biden and multiple European countries, including the UK, Germany and France, are supporting Israel’s self-defense even as they express concerns over the humanitarian situation in Gaza. Though Gaza’s legal status is unresolved under international law, Israel needs no permission to enter the territory and resort to using force in order to wage defensive operations because Israel’s right to immediate and unilateral self-defense in accordance with Article 51 of the UN Charter is universally recognized.

Israel has pledged to obey international law, and one of its cornerstones is proportionality. The concept is often misunderstood to allow only for equal numbers of civilian casualties on both sides, with any lopsided numbers considered disproportionate. But proportionality is actually a requirement to take into account how much civilian harm is anticipated in comparison to the expected concrete and direct military advantage, according to UN protocols. In other words, a high civilian death count in Jabalya could potentially be considered legal under international law so long as the military objective is of high value. The Israel Defense Forces said the intended target in this case was the senior Hamas commander who oversaw all military operations in the northern Gaza; neutralizing him is an objective that most likely clears the proportional bar. Furthermore, Israel pointed out that the loss of life was compounded because Hamas had built tunnels that weakened the targeted structure that then collapsed in the strike.

The attack also passes muster on the level of “military necessity,” the principle that the action was necessary to pursue an allowed military goal (killing enemy troops), rather than an illegal goal (causing civilians to suffer). The IDF has said that its aim is to remove the rockets, ammunitions depot, power and transportation systems Hamas has embedded within their civilian population. So far, a number of military experts have assessed that Israel appears to be trying to follow the law of armed conflict in its Gaza campaign.

[myreia]

✦ B A R D

She does not consider herself an archer, but the bow feels slick and powerful in her hand. She settles on the peak of the roof, unbothered by the fog and the rain, leather coat unfurling around her. Like the skill it takes to learn an instrument, hunting is as much about patience as it is about precision. Her breath stills. Her fingers flex, the bowstring taut. They will not see the arrow coming. —level 90 compendium

[c4tto626]

but do we get to see o.o the thigh straps?

you just want crotch pictures, admit it 😏 but also sure

[hathorik]

THE BOMBS DROPPED ON GAZA ARE 25 TIMES THE PAYLOAD ALLOWED ON URBAN AREAS

25 TIMES THE PAYLOAD ALLOWED ON URBAN AREAS

25 TIMES

THIS IS A GENOCIDE

*IMPORTANT REPORTING* A Times Investigation Tracked Israel’s Use of One of Its Most Destructive Bombs in South Gaza

(Source: New York Times | Last Updated Dec. 22, 2023) During the first six weeks of the war in Gaza, Israel routinely used one of its biggest and most destructive bombs in areas it designated safe for civilians, according to an analysis of visual evidence by The New York Times

Here's a clip for easy access, but please WATCH the FULL VIDEO ON YOUTUBE with no paywall * Warning: Graphic Content* Ultimately, the investigation identified 208 craters in satellite imagery and drone footage. ... the findings reveal that 2,000-pound bombs posed a pervasive threat to civilians seeking safety across south Gaza. Reporting By Robin Stein, Haley Willis, Ishaan Jhaveri, Danielle Miller, Aaron Byrd and Natalie Reneau

This is not defense, this is not justice, this is an affront to international humanitarian law. Stop the carnage.

The international community must do more than merely profess the defense of human rights; it must also ensure compliance in practice. DON'T LOOK AWAY. KEEP UP PUBLIC PRESSURE. PUSH FOR PEACE.

[daydreamerdrew]

Marvel Super-Heroes (1967) #13 and Captain Marvel (1968) #1

[lackadaisical-lesbian]

I'm sorry but if you genuinely feel that joining the military "for financial reasons" is a justifiable reason then you are so morally apathetic, so removed from any substantial beliefs, that it is pathetic to witness.

Even if you're poor, that does not give you the excuse to further the United States' imperial agenda and wash your hands of the blood you spill. It does not remove you from the effects of your actions.

If you pick up a weapon you are no longer a simple cog in the machine, you are an active participant, an agent of the machine.

There is no reason, not one, good enough to join the military that absolves you of the guilt.

If you claim yourself some flavor of leftist and preach on the inherent value of human life but justify joining the US military, or forgive those who do, then you are nothing more than an amalgamation of buzzwords without any sort of substance. You will never be such a pitiful creature within the imperial core that you can be forgiven for spilling the blood of people in the name of this country.

Your financial survival will never, regardless of circumstance, be worth more than human life.

[rlim1908]

NATO & the new Vatican state put maiden RINA in perfect time. Correct timeline & time reality. No time space distance azalea connected time anomalies!!! Hold Luxembourg tightly by the neck!!! It’s supposed to do maiden RINA perfect work. Lxmb is having a very very hard time with Charito Hugo ilao terrorists. (She has to be shot & killed literally) super Muslim. Lxmb NATO Return those to NATO main office UP diliman or NATO or Beda homecare charity or UST will call them abt it….

[homunculus-argument]

Another worldbuilding application of the "two layer rule": To create a culture while avoiding The Planet Of Hats (the thing where a people only have one thing going for them, like "everyone wears a silly hat"): You only need two hats.

Try picking two random flat culture ideas and combine them, see how they interact. Let's say taking the Proud Warrior Race - people who are all about glory in battle and feats of strength, whose songs and ballads are about heroes in battle and whose education consists of combat and military tactics. Throw in another element: Living in diaspora. Suddenly you've got a whole more interesting dynamic going on - how did a people like this end up cast out of their old native land? How do they feel about it? How do they make a living now - as guards, mercenaries? How do their non-combatants live? Were they always warrior people, or did they become fighters out of necessity to fend for themselves in the lands of strangers? How do the peoples of these lands regard them?

Like I'm not shitting, it's literally that easy. You can avoid writing an one-dimensional culture just by adding another equally flat element, and the third dimension appears on its own just like that. And while one of the features can be location/climate, you can also combine two of those with each other.

Let's take a pretty standard Fantasy Race Biome: The forest people. Their job is the forest. They live there, hunt there, forage there, they have an obnoxious amount of sayings that somehow refer to trees, woods, or forests. Very high chance of being elves. And then a second common stock Fantasy Biome People: The Grim Cold North. Everything is bleak and grim up there. People are hardy and harsh, "frostbite because the climate hates you" and "stabbed because your neighbour hates you" are the most common causes of death. People are either completely humourless or have a horrifyingly dark, morbid sense of humour. They might find it funny that you genuinely can't tell which one.

Now combine them: Grim Cold Bleak Forest People. The summer lasts about 15 minutes and these people know every single type of berry, mushroom and herb that's edible in any fathomable way. You're not sure if they're joking about occasionally resorting to eating tree bark to survive the long dark winter. Not a warrior people, but very skilled in disappearing into the forest and picking off would-be invaders one by one. Once they fuck off into the woods you won't find them unless they want to be found.

You know, Finland.

[falesten-iw]

Warning: Long Post No one reads long texts anymore, but despite everything I've been through with my country, my family, and recently my son, I need to get this off my chest. It's completely unbelievable to me that so many people still don't understand the background of the genocide in Palestine. What kind of journalists or influencers do we have today? Are they too afraid to report and remind their audiences about the real story behind what's happening now? No, it's not just one year of suffering! It's outrageous how the media consistently ignores what Palestinians have been enduring for decades. Have they, or you, even bothered to look at the statistics of how many Palestinians have been killed by Israel since 1948? How many children have been killed? Who holds the responsibility for what's happening now? I often wonder: what if the situation Palestinians face was applied somewhere else? For example, what if, after World War II, the West had decided that all Jews should have a state in the USA—let’s say Chicago—how would the people of Chicago have reacted? Imagine the people there being driven off the land their families had worked for generations, stripped of their rights, and harassed or persecuted if they resisted. Do international laws simply not apply when ### is involved? Do you know that people in Gaza are killed simply for fun? Yes, for fun! Israeli soldiers have been known to shoot women, children, and even animals on the spot, then walk away. Did you feel the wind when those shots were fired? Or was it too far away for you? Do you understand what death means? Good. Do you know why there are so many Palestinians living in different countries, or maybe even right next door to you, even though they smell like hummus, garlic, za'atar, and other traditional foods? Do you know why your neighbors are Palestinian and not Israeli? It's because we've been forced to flee since 1948. Our cities were erased then, and more are still being erased—through violence, through apartheid laws, through genocide, through different methods. Ilan Pappe, an Israeli historian, wrote a book about hundreds of Palestinian cities that were erased to create the Israel you know today. This isn't a war that started a few days ago or even a year ago—this has been going on since at least 1948. More than 45,000 have been killed in Gaza just in the past year alone. 17 000 of them are children, and 13 000 are women. Do you even know what that means? How it feels to lose your children or part of your family? Are you going to tell us how it feels? Do you have no empathy? Is your heart so closed that you can't see the pain around you? Are you really so blind to the suffering of others? How can you ignore these realities? Do you know that the Israeli military has cut off all electricity and completely halted the import of food, water, fuel, and other necessities? There are no hospitals and no medicines left, and 85% of people in Gaza are living in makeshift tents. Yes, tents—but not like the ones you see in movies. These are handmade from plastic scraps. Do you know that my family is suffering from all of this, and I will lose them in this cold weather if you don't act now? Please help us and donate now!

Vetted and shared by @90-ghost: Link.

Verified and shared by @el-shab-hussein: Link

Listed as number 282 in "The Vetted Gaza Evacuation Fundraiser Spreadsheet" compiled by @el-shab-hussein and @nabulsi : Link

Listed on the Butterfly Effect Project, number 957: Link

Additionally, Al Jazeera News has documented apart of my family's case: Link

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@dailyquests

[iridessence]

Rashida Tlaib is a powerhouse. Her grandmother just passed away under occupation (her words) but she’s still organizing for HEAL Palestine— an initiative providing Health, Education, Aid, and Leadership opportunities in a collective effort to help heal Gaza’s youth.

A donation to HEAL Palestine will help shelter, feed, and treat injured and sick Palestinians who have fled military violence, and who are in dire need of basic necessities including food, clean water, and medical supplies because of Israel’s cruel blockade. currently HEAL is working to open a neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) and a new maternity department in Rafah, plus sponsoring medical teams to go to Gaza.

In addition to funding urgent needs, a donation will support long-term solutions and projects in Palestine as well, such as mental health and mentorship for children who’ve been living with trauma their entire lives, and programs to rebuild Gaza’s education and health systems.

Here’s the link to donate.

[thefandomexpert]

did i just see someone compare transformers and GI Joe

[dearinglovebot]

breaking normal posting to say: merry christmas to those who celebrate. i make a point of keeping this blog fandom focused, but i am palestinian. from a place not far from bethlehem; where jesus was born and where this holiday began. but today, bethlehem is under military occupation. today, on christmas, bethlehem was bombed.

if you enjoy my jokes and posts, or if christmas means something special to you, i humbly ask you consider including bethlehem in your holiday giving. ANERA provides necessity like food and mattresses to palestinian refugees. PRCS provides critical medical care. CFG is a gaza-based grassroot collective which gives necessities to the community. thank you.

[heritageposts]

if you support israel right now, you're supporting the extermination of the palestinian people.

it really is that simple.

this isn't a 'complicated conflict,' it isn't a situation that 'requires nuance,' it's not a 'geopolitical event' that requires us to condemn the 'bad actors' on 'both sides.'

it's a genocide.

there is no 'nuance' to be had here. it's a genocide, committed by the israeli state against the palestinian people, and it's happening right now as we speak. you don't have to infer anything: israel has openly, with next to no pushback from so-called liberal democracies, cut off gaza's access to water, food and electricity. that's more than two million palestinians denied even the basic necessities for life. a million of them, children.

what is that, if not a genocide?

and that's only the latest escalation. we could go all day, listing the atrocities the palestinian people have been subjected to. the killings, the beatings, the children sexually abused in detention center, all the hospitals and ambulances being blown up, videos of palestinians being heckled by settlers as they're driven from their homes, israelis gathering on hilltops to cheer as their military drops bombs on gaza...

but all westerns want to talk about, is hamas.

because the murder of palestinians by the IDF is status quo; it doesn't affect them. what's one more dead palestinian but a statistic? but if hamas has killed a handful of israelis — if they've go as far as to even kill babies — then that justifies the extermination of two million palestinians, children and infants included.

westerns will even say that the palestinians brought it on themselves; that they should have know that a drop of israeli blood requires a river in return.

and just so we're clear, you don't have to like hamas. but when you equate hamas with the IDF, when you derail every conversation by demanding a condemnation of 'both sides,' or when you, god forbid, agree that israel is justified in dismantling hamas — which, as israel themselves have outlined, will involve the complete destruction of gaza and the murder of hundreds of thousands of civilians — then either wake up, or own up to the fact that you're a participant in the extermination of the palestinian people.

do you think i'm being harsh? then imagine how it's like living under constant aerial bombardment. with no food, no water, no electricity. constant air-raid sirens. a bomb, dropping every minute. never knowing a moment a peace, always wondering if today is going to be your last day, if you and your family are still going to be here tomorrow.

could you stomach living in gaza, for even a day? i doubt it.

and still, now, on the eve of what might be the ground invasion of gaza — with one million palestinians being told to flee, with nowhere to go — i'm getting messages from people who demand my sympathy... for israel.

well, you're not getting it.

i'm not even humoring your hand-wringing.

if you live in israel, and you're one of the ones who've turned a blind-eye to the suffering of the palestinian people, if you've fought for the IDF or tacitly supported them, if you've callously called upon the memory of the holocaust thinking the death and suffering of your ancestors would wash the blood of your own hands....

then yeah, i think you deserve every single hamas rocket lobbed at you and so much more.

[txttletale]

I'm asking this genuinely, as a 19 yo with no education in economics and a pretty surface level understanding of socialism: can you explain the whole Bananas discourse in a way someone like me might understand? In my understanding it's just "This is just a product we can give up to create better worker conditions and that's fine" but apparently that's not the full picture?

alright so some pretty important background to all this is that we're all talking about the fact that bananas, grown in the global south, are available year-round at extremely low prices all around europe and the USA. it's not really about bananas per so--the banana in this discourse is a synechdoche for all the economic benefits of imperialism.

so how are cheap bananas a result of imperialism? first of all i want to tackle a common and v. silly counterargument: 'oh, these ridiculous communists think it's imperialist for produce to be shipped internationally'. nah. believing that this is the communist objection requires believing in a deeply naive view of international traide. this view goes something like 'well, if honduras has lots of bananas, and people in the usa want bananas and are willing to pay for them, surely everyone wins when the usa buys bananas!'.

there are of course two key errors here and they are both packed into 'honduras has lots of bananas'. for a start, although the bananas are grown in honduras, honduras doesn't really 'have' them, because the plantations are mostly owned by chiquita (formerly known as united fruit) dole, del monte, and other multinationals--when they're not, those multinationals will usually purchase the bananas from honduran growers and conduct the export themselves. and wouldn't you know it, it's those intervening middleman steps--export, import, and retail, where the vast majority of money is made off bananas! so in the process of a banana making its way from honduras to a 7/11, usamerican multinationals make money selling the bananas to usamerican importers who make money selling them to usamerican retailers who make money selling them to usamerican customers.

when chiquita sells a banana to be sold in walmart, a magic trick is being performed: a banana is disappearing from honduras, and yet somehow an american company is paying a second american company for it! this is economic imperialism, the usamerican multinational extracting resources from a nation while simultaneously pocketing the value of those resources.

why does the honduran government allow this? if selling bananas is such a bad deal for the nation, why do they continue to export millions of dollars of banans a year? well, obviously, there's the fact that if they didn't, they would face a coup. the united states is more than willing to intervene and cause mass death and war to protect the profits of its multinationals. but the second, more subtle thing keeping honduras bound to this ridiculously unbalanced relationship is the need for dollars. because the US dollar is the global reserve currency, and the de facto currency of international trade, exporting to the USA is a basic necessity for nations like honduras, guatemala, &c. why is the dollar the global reserve currency? because of usamerican military and economic hegemony, of course. imperialism built upon imperialism!

this is unequal exchange, the neoimperialist terms of international trade that make the 'global economy' a tool of siphoning value and resources from the global south to the imperial core. & this is the second flaw to unravel in 'honduras has a lot of bananas' -- honduras only 'has a lot of bananas' because this global economic hegemony has led to vast unsustainable monoculture banana plantations to dominate the agriculture of honduras. it's long-attested how monoculture growth is unsustainable because it destroys soil and leads to easily-wiped-out-by-infection plants.

so, bananas in the USA are cheap because:

the workers that grow them are barely paid, mistreated, prevented from unionizing, and sometimes murdered

the nations in which the bananas are grown accept brutally unfair trade and tariff terms with the USA because they desperately need a supply of US dollars and so have little position to negotiate

shipping is also much cheaper than it should be because sailors are chronically underpaid and often not paid at all or forced to pay to work (!)

bananas are cheap, in conclusion, because they're produced by underpaid and brutalized workers and then imported on extortionate and unfair terms.

so what, should we all give up bananas? no, and it's a sign of total lack of understanding of socialism as a global movement that all the pearl-clutching usamericans have latched onto the scary communists telling them to stop buying bananas. communism does not care about you as a consumer. individual consumptive choices are not a meaningful arena of political action. the socialist position is not "if there was a socialist reovlution in the usa, we would all stop eating bananas like good little boys", but rather, "if there's a socialist revolution in the countries where bananas are grown, then the availability of bananas in the usa is going to drop, and if you want to be an anti-imperialist in the imperial core you have to accept that".

(this is where the second argument i see about this, 'oh what are you catholic you want me to eat dirt like a monk?' reveals itself as a silly fucking solipsistic misunderstanding)

and again, let's note that the case of the banana can very easily be generalised out to coffee, chocolate, sugar, etc, and that it's not about individual consumptive habits, but about global economic systems. if you are donkey fucking kong and you eat 100 bananas a day i don't care and neither does anyone else. it's about trying to illustrate just one tiny mundane way in which economic imperialism makes the lives of people in the global north more convenient and simpler and so of course there is enormous pushback from people who attach moral value to this and therefore feel like the mean commies are personally calling them evil for eating a nutella or whatever which is frankly pretty tiring. Sad!

tldr: it is not imperialism when produce go on boat but it is imperialism when produce grown for dirt cheap by underpaid workers in a country with a devalued currency is then bought and exported and sold by usamerican companies creating huge amounts of economic value of which the nation in which the banana was grown, let alone the people who actually fucking grew it, don't see a cent -- and this is the engine behind the cheap, available-every-day-all-year-everywhere presence of bananas in the usa (and other places!)

[kashverse]

it started with a simple trip to the store. nanami had one goal: groceries. necessities. adult things. things that did not include stepping foot into the toy aisle, where capitalism lurked, waiting for fathers like him to make poor financial decisions. but then, there was yuuji. yuuji, who had stopped dead in his tiny tracks in front of the lego shelf, eyes wide, mouth slightly parted in a soft gasp like he was witnessing true beauty. "papa." his little voice trembled with reverence. "they have… wobbots."

nanami made the grievous mistake of looking down at him. yuuji’s big, pleading eyes were practically shimmering, tiny hands clutching at his pant leg like he was a desperate protagonist in a drama. "papa," yuuji repeated, voice hushed as if he were revealing a grand prophecy. "i need it."

and nanami—tired, overworked, victim to puppy eyes and the relentless machine of consumerism—sighed and grabbed the box.

"papa, i lub you."

capitalism had won.

at first, things were fine. yuuji had never been so focused, hunched over the coffee table, tongue poking out as he assembled what was supposed to be a spaceship but slowly turned into an unholy amalgamation of a car, a dinosaur, and a mech suit with one wing. "it's a dinosaur spaceship with turbo boostahs," yuuji explained, proudly slamming a lego figure into the cockpit. nanami had nodded, sipping his coffee, unaware that his peaceful life was over. because soon, the legos were everywhere.

in the kitchen? yes. in his shoes? unfortunately. inside his mixing bowl while making brownies? horrifyingly, yes. nanami had blinked down at the little black lego head staring ominously from the batter.

"yuuji."

yuuji, standing at the counter with a suspiciously guilty look, gasped. "oh! batman in brownies! he is a surpwise."

"he is not a surprise, yuuji. he is a contamination."

yuuji giggled. “but now he's chocolate man.” nanami sighed deeply, fished out lego batman’s disembodied head, and handed it back. "batman does not belong in baked goods."

"okay, papa. but maybe next time, superman—"

"no."

but the worst was what was dubbed as “torture expressway.” it was yuuji’s pride and joy - a meticulously arranged, near-invisible minefield of loose legos, laid across the hallway with the precision of a military strategist. the first time you stepped on one, you nearly saw your life flash before your eyes. the second time, you did.

"mama!" yuuji gasped as you dramatically collapsed onto the couch. "you defeatyated my trap! you win da pwize!"

the prize was a singular lego brick.

nanami, from the kitchen, merely sighed. "you need to stop setting booby traps, yuuji."

"but it's a game, papa! i caw it…" he raised his little arms dramatically, "torture 'spressway!"

"accurate," you wheezed.

the final straw for nanami came when he got up at five in the morning, half-asleep, walked toward the bathroom… and stepped on something small and sharp. the sheer agony that shot up his foot nearly had him crumbling. he clutched the doorframe, inhaling sharply through his teeth as he whispered, voice tight with pain—

"… lego."

from his bedroom, yuuji sleepily called out, "you step on da fire bwock, papa?"

"yes, yuuji. i steppy on the fire block."

"dat means you gotta fight da boss now."

nanami closed his eyes, inhaled deeply, and swore to himself that the next time they went shopping, he was buying a vacuum.

[marylxvrr]

" UNYIELDING LOYALTY "

[ Play this song while you read ]

𝐘𝐀𝐍𝐃𝐄𝐑𝐄 𝐆𝐄𝐍𝐄𝐑𝐀𝐋 — a powerful military leader who commands armies with absolute authority, but when it comes to you, his obsession knows no bounds, resorting to manipulation, threats, and even violence to keep you by his side, ensuring you never escape his control . . .

The war had raged on for months, and the wounds of battle grew ever more frequent. As a healer for the soldiers, you had grown accustomed to the horrors of war. Bloodshed was a constant, and pain was something you could no longer ignore. But it was your duty to mend what had been broken, to offer relief where it was needed most.

But nothing had prepared you for the unrelenting presence of General Ryland.

The first time you met him, it was during a fierce battle. His soldiers had brought him to your medical tent, his arm severely injured, dripping with blood as he collapsed in front of you. His eyes were wild, a fire in them that you hadn’t seen in any man before. As you tended to his wounds, his gaze never left you. It was unnerving at first, but you assumed it was just the stress of battle. After all, soldiers often acted differently in the heat of war.

But days passed, and General Ryland kept returning to you—more frequently than necessary. He would bring injured men to your tent, even if their wounds were minor, just so he could see you again. He began to watch you while you worked, his intense eyes following every movement. It didn’t take long before you realized that the general’s attention was no longer out of mere necessity.

It was something darker.

"How are they doing, Y/N?" His deep voice interrupted your thoughts as you carefully applied a bandage to a soldier’s leg.

You flinched slightly. His voice always had a commanding edge to it, as if he expected you to drop everything and attend to him immediately.

"They’ll be fine, General," you replied, trying to sound professional, though you couldn’t ignore the discomfort that crept up on you whenever he was near.

"You’re so diligent," he murmured, stepping closer to you. His presence loomed over you, and you could feel his breath on your skin. "But you work too hard, don’t you? You need someone to care for you, Y/N."

You paused, looking up at him with a furrowed brow. "General, I’m here to take care of others."

He chuckled softly, a sound that sent a shiver down your spine. "But I’m the one who should take care of you. After all, you’re far too precious to waste yourself on these men. They don’t appreciate you the way I do."

You tried to ignore the way his words made your chest tighten, the way his intense gaze made your skin crawl. He had always been so cold, so distant. But now, with each passing day, you could see the obsessive obsession in his eyes. It was unsettling.

"You don’t have to worry about me, General," you said, trying to step away from him. "I’m just doing my job."

But he wasn’t listening. Before you could move, his hand shot out, grabbing your wrist firmly. His touch was cold, almost clinical, but there was an undeniable possessiveness to it.

"No," he said quietly, his grip tightening. "I don’t think you understand. You’re mine, Y/N. You belong to me now."

Your heart raced as his words sank in, a cold shiver running down your spine. There was no kindness in his gaze—only a dark, possessive hunger. The way he looked at you now was not the way a general looked at his subordinate. It was the gaze of a man who thought he owned you, who believed that you were his to command.

"General, please," you tried to pull away, but his grip only tightened. "I have to help the others. I can’t stay with you."

"Stay with me?" He smirked, a wicked gleam in his eyes. "You’re already with me. Don’t you see? There is no ‘other.’ There’s only us. You will stay by my side, where you belong. I’ll make sure of it."

His voice was soft now, soothing, as though he were speaking to a child. But the words held a dark promise, and you felt a wave of dread wash over you. His obsession was growing stronger every day, and you were helpless to stop it.

You tried to move away once more, but this time, his hand shot to your arm, pulling you against his chest with startling strength.

"Don’t fight me," he whispered into your ear. "I’ve given you everything. I’m your protector, your guardian. You don’t need anyone else. No one else can care for you the way I do."

His fingers traced the side of your face, and you shuddered. The warmth of his touch was suffocating, and yet, he held you with the certainty of a man who believed you were his possession. You were trapped, unable to escape from the general’s ever-tightening grip.

"You are mine," he repeated, his voice thick with possessiveness. "And I will never let you go."

As you stood there, helpless in his arms, you knew that your life had changed forever. The war was no longer the greatest danger you faced. The real battle had only just begun.