War Crimes . . . .WTF

[Carsman]

Some are calling for "war crimes" charges to be lodged against our "military", for the bombing of the DWB building! WTF!


That's ludicrous!

Mistakes sometimes happen, things don't always go as planned, bad people get killed OK, but sometimes good people get killed also, not OK, war is hell!

Shit happens in war, it's far from a crime!


Do you view the bombing as a "War crime"? If so, why?

[Duchess]

I know it happened and I heard it killed Dr's Without Borders people but that's all I know.

[Duchess]

I still don't know any more than I did when I posted that ^^^^^^ but I'm thinking if hitting the wrong target constitutes war crimes then probably every country in the world is guilty of it. Won't it have to be proven it was done in a malicious manner?

[Maggot]

Eh...........Israel has done it before and the media took them apart for it.

[HairOfTheDog]

I don't know whether it constitutes a war crime, but I don't think Doctors Without Borders (DWB) is going to succeed in getting the international independent investigation it desires to have it classified as such though.

They want the Geneva Convention-established Humanitarian Fact-Finding Commission to initiate an inquiry. That requires consent of the parties involved, and neither the United States nor Afghanistan recognizes the commission. The Commissions panel has never been used before.

The executive director of DWB has called on one of the 76 nations that recognize the panel to push for the inquiry on their behalf. None have done so.

[HairOfTheDog]

Why was the hospital bombed?

The U.S. has given changing accounts at to why 22 people (including children) were killed when the U.S. air-struck the hospital in Afghanistan.

On Saturday, 3 October -- Col. Brian Tribus, spokesman for U.S. Forces in Afghanistan said,
"U.S. forces conducted an airstrike in Kunduz city at 2:15am (local), Oct 3, against individuals threatening the force. The strike may have resulted in collateral damage to a nearby medical facility. This incident is under investigation."

DWB and local watchers called bullshit and said the the hospital was directly targeted. And so...

On Sunday, 4 October -- Gen. John Campbell, U.S. military chief in Afghanistan said,
"U.S. forces conducted an airstrike in Kunduz city at 2:15am (local), Oct 3, against insurgents who were directly firing upon U.S. service members advising and assisting Afghan Security Forces in the city of Kunduz. The strike was conducted in the vicinity of a Doctors Without Borders medical facility."

DWB and local watchers called bullshit and said the hospital was directly targeted and struck for up to an hour. And so...

On Monday, 5 October -- Gen. John Campbell, U.S. military chief in Afghanistan said,
"We have now learned that on October 3, Afghan forces advised that they were taking fire from enemy positions and asked for air support from U.S. forces. An airstrike was then called to eliminate the Taliban threat and several civilians were accidentally struck. This is different from the initial reports, which indicated that U.S. forces were threatened and that the airstrike was called on their behalf."

DWB responded that it had given both sides its coordinates and hospital location many times; the U.S. military knew that it was a hospital which treated all people/patients, without bias, including wounded Taliban. The U.S. could not blame the Afghans. And so...

On Tuesday, 6 October -- Gen. John Campbell said to the Senate committee,
"On Saturday morning our forces provided close air support to Afghan forces at their request. To be clear the decision to provide aerial fires was a U.S. decision, made within the U.S. chain of command. A hospital was mistakenly struck. We would never intentionally target a protected medical facility ... I assure you that the investigation will be thorough, objective and transparent."

DWB's Executive Director took to the media calling for an independent international commission; claiming the U.S. military and Afghan leaders cannot be trusted to investigate themselves and tell the truth. And so...

Yesterday, President Obama's office issued a public statement,
He apologized and expressed his condolences for the 22 deaths that were inflicted when U.S. forces “mistakenly struck” the organization’s Kunduz hospital, White House press secretary Josh Earnest said.

A day earlier, when Mr. Earnest indicated the U.S. wouldn’t formally apologize for the airstrike until several investigations into the incident had made more progress. Mr. Obama since learned new information about the airstrike and decided to apologize, Mr. Earnest said, declining to offer details.

[HairOfTheDog]

The Current Investigations

The Afghan government is investigating the incident as part of a joint probe with U.S. officials. Afghan security officials previously have alleged that Taliban fighters were using the Doctors Without Borders compound as a firing position.

The U.S. military is conducting its own probe and an investigations by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization also is under way.

The Pentagon’s shifting accounts of the events represent one question in the investigations.

Among other unanswered questions are:
-whether the U.S. gunship crew knew it was firing on a hospital;
-whether the Taliban had ever used the compound as a base to stage attacks;
-and what the Afghan forces told the U.S. forces before those American forces called in the strike.


Post 6 and 7 account refs:
http://www.cnn.com/2015/10/07/asia/docto...airstrike/
http://www.wsj.com/articles/obama-apolog...1444245760
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/08/world/....html?_r=0
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As Maggot noted, the claims DWB is making against the U.S. are very similar to those levied against Israel's striking of civilian targets like schools and medical buildings in Gaza.