Attacking with Restraint

The Abarbanel in his commentary on Parshas Shoftim offers two reasons for the ban on cutting down fruit trees during a siege. The first one is an optimistic one -- the tree can bear fruit for you in future, so you would not want to cut it down now. The second reason is more of an ethical lesson. He explains the words veoso lo tichros ki ha'adam etz hasade as signifying that it is not fitting to wage war against trees -- only against people. He elaborates that is not worthy for a hero to act mighty in fighting against a weak one. That is what it mean not to cut down the tree, which has no arms with which to fight. The tree also has no capability to seek refuge [lehikanes mifanecha bematzor] as a person can. See another post that reflects the Abarbanel's sense of the one in an advantageous position taking unfair advantage of the one in a weak position here: http://kallahmagazine.blogspot.com/2008/05/torah-true-market-value.html