Well, who says the absurd consequences have to be intended? I spoke of "smuggling" chivalry into the laws, but the elitism could just as well be unintended or unconscious.

But this defense of yours strikes me as gaslighting. Do you really think countries that are at war and that abide by the laws of war reconcile afterward because they've attempted to kill each other in a relatively nice, humane way? That's absurd. The sides "reconcile" only when the generation of combatants dies off or when the education system de-emphasizes the conflict so the younger generations forget about the war.

The notion that you stop dehumanizing the enemy when you attempt to kill him legally is absurd. Ukrainians and Russians will hate each other because of the war, as will Palestinians and Israelis. Yes, there were violations of the laws of war in those cases, but those violations aren't the sources of the enmity. The two sides hate each other because they're trying to kill each other. To psyche ourselves up to kill someone, we generally need to demonize the other person (unless we're psychopathic). And it's that hatred that prevents reconciliation.