Amnesty International: U.S. committed war crimes in Raqqa

Submitted by gjohnsit on Tue, 06/05/2018 - 1:44pm

It's become a pattern. Wherever our enemies have dug into an urban area, we've bombed that city to rubble regardless of the people living there.

During its campaign to recapture the group’s Syrian capital, the coalition did not take enough account of civilians or take the precautions necessary to minimise harm to them, Amnesty said in a report.

It documented the cases of four families whose experiences it said were emblematic of wider patterns and provided “prima facie evidence that several coalition attacks which killed and injured civilians violated international humanitarian law”.
...
It focused on the Aswad family, which it said lost eight members in a single air strike, the Hashish family, which it said lost 18 members, the Badran family which it said lost 39 members, and the Fayad family which it said lost 16 members.

“Witnesses reported that there were no fighters in the vicinity at the time of the attacks. Such attacks could be either direct attacks on civilians or civilian objects or indiscriminate attacks,” the report said of the four cases studied, adding that such attacks amounted to war crimes.

Amnesty's report was titled "War of Annihilation," based on Pentagon rhetoric at the time. The U.S. blamed ISIS for our bombs killing innocent civilians.

Benjamin Walsby, another investigator on the Amnesty team, said the coalition should have adjusted its strategy accordingly.

"If you rely on long-range tactics like artillery and airstrikes, then civilians are very likely to pay the price, and that appears to be what happened in Raqqa," he said.
...Command Sgt. John Wayne Troxell of the U.S. Army said in January that U.S. Marines had fired 30,000 artillery shells on the city.
... Civil workers had pulled nearly 500 corpses from the rubble and were still finding more six months after the fighting.

Residents complained that the coalition bombing was indiscriminate and demanded compensation. According to the Raqqa Civil Council, which took over the administration of the city, 65 percent of homes had been destroyed.

Airwars says it has evidence of 1,400 fatalities.

If this sounds familiar, it's because we did the same thing, but on an even larger scale in Mosul.

Just a few months after the U.S. declared ISIS in Iraq “defeated,” a new study has concluded that the U.S.-led battle to remove Daesh (ISIS) from Mosul, once Iraq’s second-largest city, ultimately killed nearly 12 times the number of civilians than were killed by the infamous terror group.

So why then have we not seen a bigger outcry about our mass slaughter of civilians in Mosul? Because the Iraqi government was both complicit and helped cover it up.

Like Syria and Iraq, we are killing civilians by the score in Yemen.

In 2017, the United States military said that it carried out more than 120 strikes in Yemen, more than three times as many as strikes as 2016. For many years, we at the Mwatana Organization for Human Rights documented the impact of U.S. drone strikes in Yemen through detailed field research. In 2017 we investigated eight drone strikes and ground operations and found that U.S. operations were responsible for the deaths of at least 32 civilians – including 16 children and six women – and injured ten others, including five children.

Ironically, Trump is holding up an official investigation of war crimes in Syria by Assad.
Equally ironic is this headline from Time: Can the U.S. Deter War Crimes Without Going to War with Syria?
Uh, too late. Someone tell Time. We already committed those war crimes.

Equally unbelievable is this headline from the NY Times just last year: Did America Commit War Crimes in Vietnam?

Can anyone answer that question?

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Submitted by gjohnsit on Tue, 06/05/2018 - 1:48pm

Manbij flashpoint

Turkey and the United States agreed on a plan on the withdrawal of Kurdish fighters considered "terrorists" by Ankara from the northern Syrian city of Manbij.

The agreement was reached during a meeting between Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu and US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in Washington, DC, on Monday.

The two sides agreed on a joint work to end a bilateral dispute over the presence of the People's Protection Units (YPG) troops in Manbij.

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Submitted by gjohnsit on Tue, 06/05/2018 - 3:09pm

@gjohnsit @gjohnsit

Meanwhile, there's stupid

The Trump administration is pushing its NATO allies to bolster their defenses to prepare for a potential attack by Russia, according to reports.

Secretary of Defense James Mattis is expected to meet with NATO allies this week in Brussels to discuss ways for several European countries to prepare for combat with Russia, which will include preparing naval and air forces for battle.

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Submitted by Ellen North on Wed, 06/06/2018 - 6:48pm

@gjohnsit

and this is being to set up to attack Russia on the pretext of a 'preemptive strike' (war-crime), (and, using allies, likely other targeted countries from the lengthy list) as planned, to trigger WW3... remember that TPTB, lackeys and other hyper-wealthy having luxury bunkers apparently believe that they themselves will comfortably survive a 'limited nuclear war' as long as they plan to try to explode nukes over targets, rather than upon impact, and thereby throwing up less debris to less drastically shut out sunlight... being beyond stupid and having long since boldly ventured into vacant space where no sane person could consider ever going.

And the US President has been Obama-gifted the 'right' to shut down the internet in any emergency, so that nothing but the approved story will get through, in any such event, assuming that TV/phone transmission still exists.

Not to mention war-crime censorship coming into effect - another desirable effect in TPTB, et al's, view. This also prior to a series of elections which Progs stand a chance of winning...

Might be something to keep in mind as a possibility, at any rate. The Empire Strikes Out, in both senses.

Edit to adjust the tense of a word left unchanged during sentence reconstruction, probably because of being a bit tense myself...

Re-edited to say that it might backfire, as so much already has for the US PTB:

https://www.rt.com/news/428847-german-lawmakers-us-ambassador-expulsion/

German MPs want US ambassador expelled over his desire to 'empower Europe's conservatives'
Published time: 6 Jun, 2018 04:34
Edited time: 6 Jun, 2018 11:52

German MPs are rallying for the US ambassador to be expelled after he said that he wanted to "empower" conservatives throughout Europe. One lawmaker dubbed the diplomat a "Trump vassal" while slamming his remarks.

Richard Grenell's controversial statements sent waves across Berlin when the US ambassador told Breitbart that he is overjoyed by the "European groundswell of conservative policies" that has come about because of the "failed policies of the left." He also said he wanted to "empower" conservatives on the continent.

The German foreign ministry responded by seeking clarification from the US, while MPs were quick to speak their minds regarding Grenell's comments. Some are even calling for him to be expelled over the matter.

The bluntest statements have come from the chief of the far-left Linke party, Sahra Wagenknecht. "Someone like US ambassador Richard Grenell, who thinks he can lord over Europe and determine who is governing here, can no longer stay in Germany as a diplomat," she told Die Welt daily. "If the government takes the democratic sovereignty of our country seriously, then it shouldn't just invite Grenell to a chat over coffee, but expel him immediately."

Senior center-left MP and former European Parliament President Martin Schulz also chimed in, telling the German Press Agency that "Grenell does not behave like a diplomat, but like a far-right colonial officer." He added that "if the German ambassador in Washington would say that he is there to strengthen the Democrats, he would be expelled straight away."

Meanwhile, Ralf Stegner, the chief of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) in the state of Schleswig-Holstein, referred to Grenell as an "election fighter for right-wing parties."

“European citizens don't need a Trump vassal to tell them who to vote for. A US ambassador who meddles in the democratic process to such a degree is simply misplaced," SPD MP Thorsten Schäfer-Gümbel said. ...

...Grenell's comments come amid already strained ties between Berlin and Washington, following US President Donald Trump's departure from the Iran nuclear deal and tariffs on European aluminum and steel. It also comes after German Chancellor Angela Merkel announced that Europe must take its fate into its own hands, as it can no longer rely on the US for protection.

People are getting tired of being used for injustice.

https://www.rt.com/news/428509-us-veto-unsc-palestine/

‘Why does Israel get impunity?’ UNSC call for protection of Palestinians vetoed by US
Published time: 1 Jun, 2018 21:27
Edited time: 2 Jun, 2018 12:15

... The US was the only council member to vote against the proposal. There were 10 votes in favor and four abstentions (Poland, the UK, Netherlands and Ethiopia). A resolution needs nine votes in favor and no vetoes by the US, Russia, China, France or the UK in order to be adopted.

“The message given by the council today, as it votes against this, is that the occupying power enjoys an exception,” the Kuwaiti representative said, after the proposal was vetoed. ...

And the US PTB has given itself away very freely as to its real motives and intent.

https://www.rt.com/usa/416419-mattis-new-national-defense-strategy/

Terrorism no longer primary US concern, focus on competing with Russia & China: new Defense Strategy
Published time: 19 Jan, 2018 15:23
Edited time: 20 Jan, 2018 13:36

The US will counter any “threat to America’s democracy experiment,” including using military force, the Pentagon chief said unveiling the new defense strategy that sidelines the war on terror in favor of “inter-state competition.”

Unveiling the Trump administration’s new National Defense Strategy, Jim Mattis said the main focus for US defense was competition with resurgent powers Russia and China which, he said, want to impose an authoritarian model of government on other nations. ...

... But the most damage was done to the US military over the past 16 years not by an adversary but by the defense spending cuts and lack of predictability of the defense budget. Mattis called on US lawmakers to address that problem.

This is the first new National Security Strategy in almost a decade; the previous was published in 2008. See here for RT’s in-depth analysis of the document's content.

Nothing says democracy like globally-enforced corporate-monopoly/military/surveillance-state rule. It's just not very popular among anyone but a very, very few, who are beginning to realize that they will, eventually, be next..

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Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.

A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.

Submitted by snoopydawg on Tue, 06/05/2018 - 5:15pm
snoopydawg's picture

"If you rely on long-range tactics like artillery and airstrikes, then civilians are very likely to pay the price, and that appears to be what happened in Raqqa," he said.
...Command Sgt. John Wayne Troxell of the U.S. Army said in January that U.S. Marines had fired 30,000 artillery shells on the city.

Yes General, that seems like a no brainer that you are putting civilian's lives in danger when you lob 30,000 bombs into their cities. Weren't we told that we were trying to save those civilians from ISIS? Funny how bombing them never seems to accomplish that goal.

Then to add insult to injury, many ISIS members and their families were allowed to leave. So what was that reason for knowingly killing that many civilians?

Here's another article about Raqqa and the many civilian deaths. Possible war crimes? I'd just go ahead and say that "Yes the US committed war crimes. Again!

Amnesty Says US Annihilation of Raqqa Possible War Crime

The coalition's "war of annihilation," as it was called by Defense Secretary James Mattis, killed hundreds of civilians and injured thousands between June and August 2017, according to Amnesty's report.

About 90 percent of the airstrikes were carried out by U.S. forces, and U.S. military officials called the operation "the most precise air campaign in history," with Army Sergeant Major John Wayne Troxell bragging that "mortars, artillery, rockets, Hellfires, armed drones," rained down on Raqqa "every minute of every hour."

Looks like they missed the annihilation of ISIS and annihilated civilians instead. Is there any country that our military was involved with that didn't see the USA commit war crimes? Will there ever be a reckoning for the millions that this country has killed? Will anyone in this country ever be held accountable for its war crimes?

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Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.

Voting is like driving with a toy steering wheel.

Submitted by gulfgal98 on Tue, 06/05/2018 - 7:31pm
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We (the United States) does not care about "collateral damage" as long as this country can promote the spread of corporatacracy.

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Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?

“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy

Submitted by snoopydawg on Wed, 06/06/2018 - 12:56am
snoopydawg's picture

@gulfgal98

Did you read the article in tonight's EBs about America's cruelty? Boy did that guy nail it. The UN has been writing about how our poverty is getting worse because of how congress keeps cutting taxes on the rich and then makes the poor people pay for it by gutting social programs. This was the second article that the UN has written about this country and its government.

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Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.

Voting is like driving with a toy steering wheel.

Submitted by divineorder on Wed, 06/06/2018 - 1:46pm
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@snoopydawg

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A truth of the nuclear age/climate change: we can no longer have endless war and survive on this planet. Oh sh*t.

Submitted by Bisbonian on Wed, 06/06/2018 - 6:50pm
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https://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/world-war-two/the-bombing-campaign...

Between February 13th and February 14th 1945, between 35,000 and 135,000 people were killed by Allied bombing in Dresden. Historians still argue over the number of deaths. However, there were so many refugees in the city at the time that the real figure will almost certainly never be known.

So why was Dresden chosen as a target? Arthur Harris, head of Bomber Command, had always held the view that any city that had anything to do with the Nazi war effort was a target.

Kurt Vonnegut was there, as a POW of the Germans, sheltering in the basement of a slaughterhouse for pigs (going by the catchy name of Number 5.) The intensity of the firestorm caused by the incendiary bombs created an updraft for the flames which sucked in oxygen from all around the city, turning it into a giant blast furnace. When Vonnegut was able to emerge from the basement, he witnessed people actually melted into the asphalt streets.

We were just warming up for Hiroshima.

“Dresden, the seventh largest city in Germany and not much smaller than Manchester, is also far the largest unbombed built-up the enemy has got. In the midst of winter with refugees pouring westwards and troops to be rested, roofs are at a premium. The intentions of the attack are to hit the enemy where he will feel it most, behind an already partially collapsed front, to prevent the use of the city in the way of further advance, and incidentally to show the Russians when they arrive what Bomber Command can do.”

RAF January 1945

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"I’m a human being, first and foremost, and as such I’m for whoever and whatever benefits humanity as a whole.” —Malcolm X