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A scorched earth policy is a military strategy that involves destroying anything that might be useful to the enemy while advancing through or withdrawing from an area. Specifically, all of the assets that are used or can be used by the enemy are targeted, such as food sources, transportation, communications, industrial resources, and even the people in the area. The practice can be carried out by the military in enemy territory, or in its own home territory. It may overlap with, but is not the same as, punitive destruction of the enemy's resources, which is done for purely strategic/political reasons rather than strategic/operational reasons. A scorched earth policy was famously used by Joseph Stalin against the German Army's invasion of the Soviet Union in the Second World War, by William Tecumseh Sherman during his March to the Sea in the American Civil War, by Lord Kitchener against the Boers, and by the Russian army during the failed Napoleonic invasion of Russia. The strategy of destroying the food and water supply of the civilian population in an area of conflict has been banned under Article 54 of Protocol I of the 1977 Geneva Conventions. The relevant passage says: ==Ancient times== The Scythians used scorched earth methods against King Darius the Great of Persia. Nomadic herders, the Scythians retreated into the depths of the Steppes, destroying food supplies and poisoning wells. As a result, Darius the Great was forced to concede defeat. A large number of his troops died from starvation and dehydration. The Greek general Xenophon records in his ''Anabasis'' that the Armenians burned their crops and food supplies as they withdrew before the advance of the Ten Thousand. The Greek mercenary general Memnon suggested to the Persian Satraps the use of the scorched earth policy against Alexander as he moved into Asia Minor. He was refused. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「scorched earth」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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