I was reading a bit more about Jaina Proudmoore and her reaction to Theramore and got to thinking again about the nature of what happened at the fall of Theramore. For those unfamiliar: Garrosh gathered the Horde to march on Theramore, but held his forces just outside of Dustwallow Marsh for an unrevealed reason. During this time, the Alliance and Kirin Tor responded to the advancing Horde army by sending top military commanders and forces to defend Theramore. This is precisely what Garrosh wanted. After a brief assault with his conventional forces, Garrosh withdrew the Horde military from Theramore in what seemed to be an Alliance victory only to have Garrosh drop a mana bomb on Theramore once his forces were out of the blast zone. That's why Garrosh waited: he wanted the Alliance to muster up its military strength, gather its top Generals in one location, so he could bomb them all, wiping them out with one, quick stroke.
Personally, I thought it was a brilliant military move. Garrosh played the Alliance like a fiddle; they did exactly what he wanted them to do. However, there has been a list of grievances over the matter:
1.) This was a "cowardly act." My response: How so? Because the Horde used an explosive projectile against the enemy's military? That happens all the time ranging from mages' fireballs to warlocks flinging chaos bolts to siege vehicles hurling boulders. Why is this explosive projectile "cowardly" and those are not? Jaina herself is perhaps the most powerful mage on Azeroth and has a long history of lobbing things at her enemies instead of fighting them in hand-to-hand combat.
2.) The bomb was a weapon of mass destruction. My response: Was it? How big must an explosion be before it's classified as a "weapon of mass destruction" (WMD)? Even if it is, what agreement was ever made between the Horde & Alliance that they would never use big weapons against each other? There could be a rational fear of civilian casualties in using a WMD, sure, but in this case, Theramore was evacuated before the bomb hit so that only military personnel remained. That's the fear people have about WMD's - they tend to cause loads of civilian casualties. Yet, according to the book Tides of War, that just didn't happen.
3.) A mana bomb is too painful to use as a weapon. My response: we're told that it's painful, sure, but so is getting burned to death by fireballs, beaten to death by maces, stabbed by daggers, eaten alive by animals, and whatever other methods the Horde & Alliance have been using to kill each other all this time. The mana bomb exploded and did its work rather quickly - much faster than people bleeding to death on the battlefield or smoldering as charred husks after being engulfed in a mage's fireballs.
4.) Theramore was not a legitimate military target. My response: militarily, it was. The Alliance was building a highway into the Barrens from Theramore and it was the port by which all the fortresses popping up in the Barrens were being supplied. Don't want people invading your land? Cut off their supply route.
These are just some thoughts I had on the matter. Garrosh is a douche, sure, but the attack on Theramore wasn't some monstrosity like people make it sound. It was a battle between two militaries and one of them got blown away. Why the big shock? Someone has to lose...
So what are the rules of war in Warcraft? Who put them in place? By what authority did they do so? If these questions can't be answered, I really don't think there's a strong case against Garrosh's methods in dominating Theramore as he did.