February 9, 2006
War Crimes and Commanders-in-Chief
George Bush and Tomoyuki Yamashita
By DAVE LINDORFF
It's pretty easy to trace the war crime of torture in Iraq, Afghanistan and
Guantanamo Bay back to the Oval Office. The memos are all there.
But George Bush is guilty of worse war crimes than torture, bad as torture
may be. He is also guilty of violating another Geneva Convention involving
the protection of non-combatants.
The U.S. military has violated a number of basic international rules of war
in Iraq and Afghanistan, not even counting the biggest one--starting an
unprovoked war of aggression.
For starters, there was the much-touted "Shock&Awe" campaign of aerial
bombardment of Baghdad, which targeted markets, targeted sites located in
residential districts, and which used weapons in an urban setting--depleted
uranium shells, anti-personnel bombs, incendiary bombs, etc.--which were
guaranteed to kill many civilians, and which in many cases are banned, or
banned in such situations.
In Fallujah, we had another war crime--an act of massive retribution against
a civilian population for an action by enemy fighters. Recall that it was
allegedly enemy fighters in Fallujah who killed and then mutilated the
bodies of four mercenary soldiers working for the Americans. It was that
incident that led Washington to decide on crushing Fallujah as punishment. A
first attempt to invade the city failed and was called off as casualties
mounted to what the White House considered politically unacceptable levels.
A new bigger attack was planned, with the aim of leveling the city of
300,000, but it was held off until after the 2004 election for fear high US
casualties might hurt Bush's chances. The invasion of Fallujah was clearly a
political act, with heavy involvement by the White House.
Retribution against civilian populations for the actions of enemy fighters
is expressly forbidden and is a serious war crime under the Geneva
Conventions.
After US troops had Fallujah surrounded, refugees were still streaming out
of the city. The New York Times' Dexter Filkins reported that US troops were
turning back into the city all males "of combat age," which the US in Iraq
has been interpreting generally to mean over 12. All those sent back into
the deathtrap of Fallujah were subject to bombardment by napalm, depleted
uranium shells, phosphorus bombs (a weapon that is illegal if used against
people, but which the military admits was so used in Fallujah). Under the
geneva Conventions, civilians must be allowed to flee the scene of a battle.
But why would all these war crimes make George Bush a war criminal? He
wasn't making the orders was he?
Well, ask Gen. Tomoyuki Yamashita-a man who died the same month Bush was
born, in a February 60 years ago. Actually you can't ask the general, who
commanded Japanese forces in the Phillippines and later all across the
Pacific, because he's dead. He was executed after the war by America
following a military tribunal that accused and tried him for allegedly being
responsibile for the war crimes committed by his troops.
Evidence linking Gen. Yamashita directly to those many crimes was lacking at
the trial, but the decision was that by not maintaining control over his
soldiers, and not stopping them from committing war crimes, Yamashita was
responsible for those crimes himself, and deserved to die.
Ordinarily, one might say that a president is not that involved in running
the military, and that the responsibility for soldiers' behavior should rest
with the top generals, or maybe the Secretary of Defense. But this president
insists at every opportunity that he is not a president, but rather a
commander-in-chief. It's his justification for breaking the Foreign
Intelligence Surveillance Act, for saying he will authorize torture if he
feels like it, for refusing to provide information to Congress, for
eliminating habeas corpus, for ruling that captured fighters in Afghanistan
and elsewhere aren't POWs. The list goes on and on.
Basically, Bush, in his own view, is a Commander-in-Chief first, and a
President second.
Fine, if that's how he wants it, he should have to take the good with the
bad. How was it with Spiderman? "With great power comes great
responsibility."
That includes responsibility for the crimes being committed by the U.S.
military under his command.
If it was right for Gen. Yamashita to be executed for his soldiers'
misdeeds, it is certainly right for Commander-in-Chief Bush to be impeached
for the misdeeds of soldiers under him--and then to be charged as a war
criminal himself.
http://www.counterpunch.org/lindorff02092006.html
--
They Knew...
Despite the whitewash, we now know that the Bush administration was warned
before the war that its Iraq claims were weak
http://www.inthesetimes.com/site/main/article/they_knew_0802/
--
"Of course the people don't want war. But after all, it's the leaders of the
country who determine the policy, and it's always a simple matter to drag
the people along whether it's a democracy, a fascist dictatorship, or a
parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can
always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have
to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for
lack of patriotism, and exposing the country to greater danger."
-- Herman Goering at the Nuremberg trials
http://www.snopes.com/quotes/goering.htm
--
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