US war crimes:

Originally posted by Dreamz
ECK, I agree with what you said above about our soldiers 100%. Just because we are Americans doesnt mean that our troops are alway in the right. Out of the 130k that are in Iraq there are going to be a few that are considered bad apples and should be treated as such.

In my experience with the Army, the vast majority of soldiers were good, hard-working people; but, there were always a few bad apples in the bunch. That's just the way it goes. So, it stands to reason, as you said Dreamz, there are gonna be some soldiers who break the law in Iraq. They must be dealt with as criminals, because anyone who commits a crime is a criminal, regardless of the uniform they wear.

It was a great post on your part until you mentioned Rumsfield though. I think that is a whole differant issue. Should administration officials be subject to crimes during war time or not? I don't recall Rumsfield doing any criminal activity or sending our troops into war on his own. He is just a small part of a complicated machine we call our government.

As far as Rumsfeld is concerned, I used to like the guy. When he was chosen I thought, now we're cookin' with gas. However, in the lead up to the Iraq invasion I began noticing disturbing trends within his leadership. I single him out in this instance because he is the boss over defense. He is responsible for the actions taken by our military. He's the top dawg. He lied, manipulated intelligence on the grandest of scales, threw out the TIPFID condemning our troops to a vast array of unnecessary dangers and has shown a degree of hubris I have seen in no man before. He berated his generals, he berated veteran intelligence analysts and fired or ran off anyone who dared disagree with him. In summation, he is a greedy, sawed-off little expletive deleted. As a former soldier, I have not an ounce of respect left for him. He is responsible for those in charge (the military) and he has thoroughly thrown them to the wolves in persuit of his and the neo con agenda of dominating this world. He will rot in hell for his crimes. I hope he enjoys what life he has left.

War Crimes.

Hmmmm.....WAR......CRIME......Kind of a Redundancy isn't it.

Genocide=systematic killing of a racial or cultural group.
Crimes against Humanity=deliberate and intentional killing of large numbers of civilians for political or other purposes.

There is no such thing as a HUMANE WAR.
Humane=Characterized by kindness, mercy, or compassion.

Face it, WAR is CRIME. Against ALL HUMANITY.

War is a crime especially when it is SOLD as a last resort, but it isn't. A war of defense (like in WWII when we were fighting the Axis powers that wanted world domination) is one thing, but a pointless, ill-advised, illegal war SHOULD be a war crime.

This war was CLEARLY a war of aggression by the world's largest superpower against a 3rd world army without even ONE measly aircraft in it's Air Force. Talk about a slaughter.

Unfortunately I doubt there's any legal basis for actually prosecuting any of the Dubya cabal. I mean, Kissinger is still out of jail, and he was responsible for hundreds of thousands dead.

jak

Kissinger is also unable to travel freely and be without body guards. He could be snatched at any moment.

I don't know if anyone here recalls this or not, but when the dust settled after the Somalia debacle (Black Hawk Down), Republicans - including me - called en masse for Sec. Defense Les Aspen's head - and THEY GOT IT. He resigned in disgrace. Am I the only one who sees this blatant hypocrisy?

ps..

During war, killing an innocent and/or unarmed person - especially when they're wounded could be a war crime.

Traveling to Iraq to make a deal to sell poisonous gas/chemicals to a dictator (think Rumsfeld) should be a crime against humanity. Has anyone here NOT seen the photo of Rummy and Saddam shaking hands back in the 80's?

[Edited on 19-09-2003 by EastCoastKid]

Originally posted by EastCoastKid
ps..

During war, killing an innocent and/or unarmed person - especially when they're wounded could be a war crime.

Yeah,

But we have here is these Marines shooting disabled enemy soldier dead.

On purpose.

Thats definetly a no, no..

Personally, I think it's sick. I'm just glad I never had to kill anyone. Although after the war started, I came a hair away from it one night on guard duty. I wouldn't have missed a night's sleep over it, as my job was to protect my unit. That doesn't mean I wanted to kill anyone or revelled in it. Ya know?

I'm standing out there in front of a stopped, unmarked vehicle, locked and loaded, weapon trained on the driver's forehead. (He and his Arab buddy are in civvies, have no ID and are claiming to be Saudi police officers and want into our camp. I imagine pulling the trigger, putting a bullet between his eyes and I think: man, that'd be nasty. Brains everywhere. I lowered my aim to his chest. He didn't wait around for the 1st Sgt. to check him out, needless to say. Money said he was a terrorist, but he was correctly under the impression I'd blow his head off. Smart man.

Originally posted by EastCoastKid
Kissinger is also unable to travel freely and be without body guards. He could be snatched at any moment.

I don't know if anyone here recalls this or not, but when the dust settled after the Somalia debacle (Black Hawk Down), Republicans - including me - called en masse for Sec. Defense Les Aspen's head - and THEY GOT IT. He resigned in disgrace. Am I the only one who sees this blatant hypocrisy?

Got only this to say:

Political satire became obsolete when Henry Kissinger was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
� Tom Lehrer, on Henry Kissinger

[Edited on 19-12-2003 by Salem]