It was felt that although military manuals contain the laws of war and other principles by which the military must be governed, it needs to be pointed out to soldiers that to use nuclear weapons on a city would produce a crime against humanity or a crime against peace and certainly war crime and grave breaches of the Geneva Convention; as well as the fact that what they are doing today, preparation and planning amount to a conspiracy to commit the mentioned crimes as well as genocide.

There is a good foundation from which to start influencing the military. The Bishops' pastoral message to Catholics as well as the examples of people refusing to fire their missiles were discussed earlier. These inconsistencies between nuclear deterrence policies and the laws of war indicate a potential source of leverage which should be exploited.