Collins Cobuild Dictionary

One can only surmise that he what he really meant to dissociate himself from was a “scorched-earth” policy, defined by the Collins Cobuild Dictionary, ENGLISH LANGUAGE, as “the deliberate burning, destruction, and removal by an army of everything, especially food, shelter and animals, that could be useful to an enemy who might invade the area.”

Slash-and-burn, scorched earth, no holds barred, take no prisoners (English) Rene Meertens 2010

In answer to Anne Bodine's point, both the Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English and the Collins Cobuild Dictionary use they and their as the non-gender-specific pronoun/adjective (which the reader probably noted also in the first paragraph of this review).

VERBATIM: The Language Quarterly Vol XVII No 4 1991