Session 22 - Is it a 'War'? Or an 'armed conflict'?

What is ‘war’? What is an ‘armed conflict’? These two words in today’s world are being used interchangeably. – The USA fight against the Islamic state is a perfect fit in this scenario. Here, a question arises that what are the circumstances or the situation when war is called a war or when war is not a war?

When missiles are launched and cities are bombarded, what is it called? - According to USA, maybe an ‘armed conflict’ or ‘counter-terrorism’. These terms greatly matters especially to the president who wants to keep the American army in action in those areas but at the same time abiding and being within the bounds of its country and the International law. The congress is even playing an active role in justifying this war as a ‘counter-terrorism’ act, as since the World War II it has not been authorized a war. Similarly, it even matters to the American citizens, as most of them are in favor of all these inhuman and unjustifiable actions by their country against the Islamic state militants in Iraq, Syria as well as in Pakistan.