Whos War Crimes?

I was reading Saddam Hussein's Violations of the Geneva Convention at The Heritage Foundation earlier today. It is a near perfect example of trying to take care of the splinter in someone else's eye whilst ignoring the beam in your own. Here's just a few examples of Saddaam's 'War Crimes';

Example 1

• On March 23, Iraqi soldiers and Fedayeen fighters killed 10 U.S. soldiers and injured 40 in an ambush after feigning surrender by waving a white flag and then opening fire on the U.S. soldiers preparing to accept their surrender.

They could always argue that they were pre-empting US forces by killing them before they were themselves murdered after their surrender. I can't see the US complaining as they have rcently waged a global PR campaign that pre-emptive murder is A-OK. Jesus says it's OK when he talks to Dubya. Unfortunately, as we know, Young George mangles sentences and ends up thinking that God said stuff like 'Do unto others before they do unto you?'.

The image to the right is of US soldiers mowing down surrendered Waffen-SS . The men still standing were killed within minutes of the photo being taken. The building to the right is one of four hospitals. It is from this hospital earlier in the day that wounded Waffen-SS were dragged out to the wall, lined up, and executed in cold-blood. You can read more about the 'liberation of Dachau' here. Ironically, in a building just a few yards away from where these men were murdered Waffen-SS soldiers faced a military court for the murder of US POWs at Malmedy. Also, the Waffen-SS had nothing to do with Dachau the troops that were murdered had just returned from the Eastern Front.

Incinerated body of an Iraqi soldier on the "Highway of Death," a name the press has given to the road from Mutlaa, Kuwait, to Basra, Iraq. U.S. planes immobilized the convoy by disabling vehicles at its front and rear, then bombing and straffing the resulting traffic jam for hours. More than 2,000 vehicles and tens of thousands of charred and dismembered bodies littered the sixty miles of highway. The clear rapid incineration of the human being [pictured above] suggests the use of napalm, phosphorus, or other incendiary bombs. These are anti-personnel weapons outlawed under the 1977 Geneva Protocols. This massive attack occurred after Saddam Hussein announced a complete troop withdrawal from Kuwait in compliance with UN Resolution 660. Such a massacre of withdrawing Iraqi soldiers violates the Geneva Convention of 1949, common article 3, which outlaws the killing of soldiers who "are out of combat." You can read 'A Report on United States War Crimes Against Iraq to the Commission of Inquiry for the International War Crimes Tribunal' here.

You can make of this one what you will. It shows two dead Iraqis in a trench with a white flag. An opponent of the US military could well be forgiven for wondering if surrendering, attempting to surrender, or obeying UN resolutions to break combat is an invitation to be murdered. The "surrendering Iraqis murder decent Westerners" meme is out now so there are a lot of people who should know better that will dismiss this as being acceptable. Of course, if it was their child dead under the white flag they would have a much different opinion.

Example 2

• Numerous reports have detailed how Iraqi soldiers have violated the “principles of distinction” by disguising themselves as Iraqi civilians and concealing their weapons and military status, attempting to draw U.S. soldiers into an ambush.

Obviously Iraqi soldiers in Iraq looking like Iraqis is a war crime whereas British SAS being disguised as Iraqis is perfectly acceptable. Rather than show you the image of the two Brits here's their wigs. Read about this in ' Black Op in Basra busted?' by clicking here or scrolling down a couple of stories.

Example 3

• An embedded reporter traveling with Marines on the road to Nasiriya reported taking fire from Iraqi soldiers dressed as civilians on a bridge outside the city of Nasiriya. By disguising themselves as civilians, Iraqi soldiers blurred the distinction between soldier and civilian in an effort to limit the force of the American military response. As part of this effort, the Iraqi soldiers stockpiled weapons and other heavy military equipment in several houses and moved freely among the houses disguised as civilians.

Ok I give up. Here is a picture of one of the Brits who diguised as an Iraqi civilian (thus blurring the distinction between soldier and civilian) killed one Iraqi policeman and wounded another. As part of this effort, the British soldiers carried weapons, explosives, mines and other military equipment moving freely around the streets disguised as civilians.

Example 4

Iraqi officials have sanctioned the use of terrorist tactics to kill coalition forces. In several instances, Iraqi soldiers have disguised themselves as Iraqi civilians and then detonated concealed explosives. In one case, a pregnant woman pretending to be in distress lured three American soldiers guarding a checkpoint to her, and then the driver of the vehicle detonated an explosive device killing all three soldiers, the pregnant woman, and the driver.

I'm sure that if they had a few smart bombs or laser guided missiles then they wouldn't need to resort to such tactics. If they had ways and means of delivering munitions on target with pinpoint accuracy then they would. The biggest difference between a cruise missile and a suicide bomber in a VBIED(Vehicle Bourne Improvised Explosive Device) is the guidance system. Let's not forget that the first Iraqi car bombs were exploded by Iyad Allawi and his INC pals at the behest of the CIA in the early 1990s. These 'not-terrorist' actions included blowing up a schoolbus full of children. Of course these bombs were sanctioned by the West so they weren't 'terrorist' per se. You can read about that here.

Example 5

On April 3, a non-commissioned Iraqi Army officer posing as a taxi driver detonated an explosive device in his car at a checkpoint, seriously wounding four American soldiers.

I guess he was an 'undercover soldier'. I wonder if it was this incident which gave birth to an order to open fire on all taxis in the city of Samawa. In Fallujah civilians were killed by snipers while trying to reach the hospital which had been taken over and occupied by US forces. I doubt you could of caught a taxi to Fallujah General anyway because you can see how they treated the ambulances by looking at the picture.

That is just a small slice of history and amply demonstrates that the US doesn't care one whit about international law or the Geneva Conventions. It is the height of hypocrisy for them to even think about drawing up charges against small time dictators when they are without a shadow of a doubt the world's worst offenders. It is well past time that the criminals that run the United States are brought to justice. The question is who is going to do it? Personally I hope it's the French.

Tags: iraq, war, politics, military