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5.17.2.3 Destruction of Enemy Property to Diminish the Enemy’s Ability toConduct or Sustain Operations. It may be imperatively demanded by the necessities of war toseize or destroy enemy property in order to diminish the enemy’s ability to conduct or sustainoperations, such as railways, lines of communication, and other war fighting and war sustaininginfrastructure. 423 For instance, Union forces destroyed the Confederacy’s cotton during the CivilWar in order to deprive the Confederacy of the ability to fund its military operations. 424Similarly, coalition forces during Operation ENDURING FREEDOM destroyed narcotics in order toweaken the Taliban and al Qaeda’s ability to finance their operations. 4255.17.2.4 Incidental Damage to Enemy Property. Military necessity also justifiesdamage to property incidental to combat operations that is reasonably related to overcomingenemy forces. 426 For example, the movement of armed forces and equipment may damage roadsor fields. 427423 United States v. List, et al. (The Hostage Case), XI TRIALS OF WAR CRIMINALS BEFORE THE NMT 1254 (“It islawful to destroy railways, lines of communication, or any other property that might be utilized by the enemy.Private homes and churches even may be destroyed if necessary for military operations.”); LIEBER CODE art. 15(“Military necessity … allows of all destruction of property, and obstruction of the ways and channels of traffic,travel, or communication, and of all withholding of sustenance or means of life from the enemy.”). Compare§ 5.7.6.2 (Make an Effective Contribution to Military Action).424 In re Mrs. Alexander’s Cotton, 69 U.S. 404, 419-20, 421 (1864) (holding that 72 bales of cotton taken from abarn by Union naval forces could lawfully be captured as enemy property based on “the peculiar character of theproperty” as “one of [the rebels’] main sinews of war,” but that the cotton was not a maritime prize because it hadbeen captured on land).425 International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) Joint Command – Afghanistan, Press Release: Combined ForceFinds, Destroys Drugs, Weapons Cache (Sept. 7, 2010) (describing a patrol’s destruction of a cache of opium andweapons in order to “significantly reduce[] the insurgent’s ability to … procure financial resources”); AprilCampbell, Afghan Forces Becoming Increasingly Effective Against Drug Producers, AFGHANISTAN INTERNATIONALSECURITY ASSISTANCE FORCE – NEWS (Sept. 29, 2011) (describing Afghan counter-narcotics forces’ seizure anddestruction of narcotics laboratories and narcotics as “dealing a significant blow to the insurgency’s ability to fundoperations”).426 See also GREENSPAN, MODERN LAW OF LAND WARFARE 282-83 (“While the seizure or destruction of enemypersonnel and war material are actual objectives of warfare, the operations of war must also result in the incidentaldestruction and seizure of much property, not as the prime object of attack, but which becomes involved in thestruggle. … Troops march, ride, and fight wherever the battle takes them, whether over fields of growing crops orin the streets of cities, towns, or villages. Land is used for camp sites, entrenchments, and other defensesconstructed in or on it, streets may be torn up, bridges demolished, dwellings and factories converted into strongpoints, furniture and bedding may provide the cover for a sharpshooter hidden in some dwelling. Practically everyshell or bomb that explodes damages property in one form or another, whether or not it attains its objective. Mostbullets that are fired strike, not humans, but property. Each missile that is launched must finally come to earthsomewhere.”).427 See, e.g., 1956 FM 27-10 (Change No. 1 1976) 56 (explaining that “the rule requiring respect for privateproperty is not violated through damage resulting from operations, movements, or combat activity of the army”);1958 UK MANUAL 589 (“The rule that private property must be respected admits, however, of exceptionsnecessitated by the exigencies of war. In the first instance, practically every operation, movement or combatoccasions damage to private property.”); LAUTERPACHT, II OPPENHEIM’S INTERNATIONAL LAW 414 (§151)(“Destruction of enemy property in marching troops, in conducting military transport, and in reconnoitring, is lawfulif unavoidable. A reconnoitring party need not keep on the road if they can better serve their purpose by ridingacross tilled fields. Troops may be marched, and transport may be conducted, over crops when necessary. A264