The massive U.S. bombing of a MSF Hospital in Afghanistan was a war crime [View all]

[cali]

Last edited Mon May 9, 2016, 05:09 AM - Edit history (1)

its own investigatory report that excuses itself from war crimes, makes it clear that war crimes were committed. The laxity, justifications and excuses are about all we can expect.

And I'm damn sick of the ridiculous meme bio about how all service members are heroes and the best of the best.

They're just humans.

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The report details violations of the law of armed conflict committed by U.S. forces on the ground in Kunduz and in the AC-130 aircraft that carried out the attack that destroyed the hospital. The report notes, for instance, that the ground commander who ordered the strike and the aircrew "failed to comply with the LOAC (laws of armed conflict)" by making an "unreasonable" determination that the MSF facility was a lawful target and an unjustified blanket determination that all at the site were combatants, and ordering the attack on persons at the site even after observing that they did not appear to be armed or engaging in hostile activity.

Not all laws of war violations are war crimes -- only serious violations committed with criminal intent or recklessness. Yet two of the report's findings make clear that serious violations occurred. First, the attack was unlawfully indiscriminate because "neither commander distinguished between combatants and civilians nor a military objective and protected (civilian) property." Second, even if the commanders reasonably believed they were carrying out an attack on a lawful target, the report found that the attack was unlawfully disproportionate to the expected military gain of the attack.

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http://www.cnn.com/2016/05/04/opinions/kunduz-hospital-report-sifton/