Imran Khan Quotes

Hamas had fired thousands of rockets and other missiles at Israeli population centers—war crimes under the Geneva Conventions. Israel finally retaliated against Hamas facilities in Gaza. However, in an unprecedented effort to avoid civilian casualties, the Israeli Defense Forces warned the people by indicating which targets they were going to strike. They also dropped leaflets in Arabic telling the civilians that they are not the targets but to try and avoid harm to them and their families, they should evacuate the neighborhoods that would be under attack. Hamas had placed their missile launchers and other weapons in and near schools, hospitals, mosques and civilian housing risking their civilian population—see {640841}.

While there were atrocities committed by both sides in the Civil War, the proportion tended to be heavily weighted by Confederate perpetrations. The Confederate officers were not appointed by the command structure and under strict military discipline, but they were elected by the troops and could be so removed (except for the general officers who were appointed by the confederacy). Also, the confederate troops were not as well fed or supplied as the North and they had fewer resources with which to fulfill their obligations to prisoners. In a number of battles, ill-clothed soldiers stripped the Union dead, wounded and prisoners, often naked to use their shoes, blankets and clothing, Union prisoners of war were much more badly abused in the prisoners of war camps like Andersonville which were not under the command of Robert E. Lee.

[During the Guatemalan Civil War, the military had often tortured, murdered disappeared and sexually enslaved female relatives of men they suspected of being rebel. The object was to humiliate and emasculate the insurrectionists so that others will not join them and they will cease their revolutionary activities to protect their women. The civil war ended in 1996, and although military war criminals had been tried earlier but never for crimes – sexual crimes against women. 20 year had elapsed since the end of the war and this famous trial. The two war criminals were sentenced to 120 and 240 years in prison respectively, but they had escaped justice for more than two decades. The United States, in the middle of the Red Scare was supporting and financing the Guatemalan government and military. In addition America trained many of the military in counter-insurgency which taught some methods that were contrary to International Law and which were illegal for American soldiers to engage in. After official documents of the era were declassified, it became clear that U. S. officials—–especially the CIA--were aware of the excesses and war crimes of the Guatemalan military, but did little to stop it. See Quotes 583699, and 583697 for more on the American involvement.]

The Justice Department and the White House were arguing that the Geneva Conventions did not apply to terrorist groups. See {589865}.

The Congresswoman was referring to the fact that the U. S. Defense Department had trained Indonesian military officers who had leadership roles in the massacres and other human rights violations in East Timor in 1999.

Abu Ghraib was the prison in Iraq where prisoners were brutalized and treated illegally and immorally. Seymour Hirsh was the Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist who broke the story. Levy contrasted that where the Algerian War was full of such atrocities but French intellectuals and press would not publicize it. It didn’t stop for the whole war.

Funston was by modern standards a “war criminal” and “Smith” and “Waller” were two particularly brutal senior officers why had committed even worse war crimes. See {615370}. There was an investigation but the army decided to cover up the crimes lest the extent would become propaganda tools for the enemy. The irony is that Funston had been awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for bravery earlier in the war. There was an active peace movement at the time (led by Mark Twain among others) and the reaction of the “hawks” to the “doves” was worse than even the Vietnam War.

Mahathir, in his moral assessment, fails to come to grips with the fact that the Coalition forces in their Afghan and Iraq activities attempt to kill and injure as few people as possible to accomplish their objective. The terrorists attempt to kill and injure as many people as possible. In the September 11 attack, the buildings could have been attacked late at night so there would be few casualties, and in Bali they could have bombed the facility after it had closed instead of waiting until there was the largest audience. And the terrorist bombs include nails, rat poison, and other additional material designed not to do more building damage, but to kill and maim more people which is their specific objective. Most wars have collateral damage and the parties are required to make a good faith attempt to minimize that. But the terrorists not only make no attempt, but make strong efforts to kill as many as possible. That is a huge moral and ethical distinction.