This chapter uses the wars on Ukraine and Gaza as prisms to explore more general issues about violence, war, humanitarianism, and justice. The story of war and peace is usually told in multiple, often wildly different, narratives, depending on who is narrating, and the two wars are no exception. Double standards are rife, and it is difficult but necessary to decide which narratives are more credible. A good starting point for such an assessment is the often-neglected voices of those most at risk from war and violence. They have even more to fear from the targeted violence of states, amplified by information technologies, than from the intimate violence perpetrated by individual combatants. In these circumstances, can meaningful distinctions be made between just and unjust wars, both in general and in Ukraine and Gaza in particular? Is international humanitarian law any more than a mirage, when powerful states use disproportionate force against civilians, devastating whole societies and cultures? How and by whom can their political and military leaders be held accountable for crimes of war and genocide, when in practice the existing international system protects them under a dome of impunity?