Warriors of Peace?

I read this a few years ago and ran across it again a couple of days ago.

Do not hurt where holding is enough;
Do not wound where hurting is enough;
Do not maim where wounding is enough;
Do not kill where maiming is enough;
The greatest warrior is one who does not need to kill.
(Oath of Peace from The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, the Unbeliever
by Stephen Donaldson)

It got me to thinking about Buddhist philosophy and how it has been adapted and reconstituted over the years and across cultures. The idea is to use the least amount of force or intervention necessary to accomplish defense. Defense. When studying karate, one of the tenets of Hohan Soken, our founder from Okinawa, Japan was a sort of progression of encounter.
Basically
First avoid confrontation where possible.
If you find yourself in the situation, escape the confrontation if you can.
If you cannot escape without confrontation, use words to diffuse the situation.
If words are not enough, defend yourself only if attacked (don't defend by attacking first).
Then- basically- see the quote above.

Not a bad approach to confrontation after all. What do you think?