Currently, Obama is in the third year of his presidency. In that time, he has failed to close Guantanamo Bay and has  increased the number of drone strikes, Drone strikes are also being carried out in Somalia and Yemen. 

Has Obama committed war crimes?

When Obama came into office, he promptly increased the drone strikes in Pakistan in an effort to kill more Taliban that were hiding out in the tribal regions of Pakistan. However, it was already known during the Bush administration that the drone strikes had killed civilians[1], yet Obama decided to continue this policy, knowing that in doing so he would put more Pakistani civilians at risk. By doing this, he is violating Geneva Convention Article 3 Section 1A which states that “violence to life and person” are prohibited in reference to civilians and “Persons taking no active part in the hostilities.”[2] In doing this Obama has committed war crimes. As of 2011, no civilian deaths have been reported[3],but don’t expect it to remain that way for long as these indiscriminate attacks continue to terrorize the populations of Yemen, Pakistan, and Somalia.

Obama failed in his promise to close Guantanamo Bay. He initially promised that“within his first week in office to issue an executive order to close the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay,”[4] yet didn’t, instead changing his plan to do it within the first 100 days; yet in that too, he also failed. He most recently signed into law a bill “barring suspects held there from being brought to the United States for trial.”[5] The torture that started under the Bush administration continues under Obama, further turning him into a war criminal.[6]

The second to last day of 2010, the Guardian announced that the US Army was investigating the 5th Striker Brigade whose leadership was accused of having soldiers run “a ‘kill team’ that murdered Afghan civilians,”[7] with a total of five soldiers being prosecuted. It is unlikely that anything will happen to them and if something, it will only be the low-ranking soldiers that suffer.

When it comes to war criminal presidents, nothing has changed.

Devon DB is 19 years old and studying political science at Fairleigh Dickinson University.

Notes

1: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/15/international/asia/15pakistan.html

2:http://www.icrc.org/ihl.nsf/7c4d08d9b287a42141256739003e636b/fe20c3d903ce27e3c125641e004a92f3

3: http://www.longwarjournal.org/pakistan-strikes.php

4: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123179018983674483.html

5: http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE7065ZT20110108

6: http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=13672

7: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/dec/29/us-military-investigates-5th-stryker-brigade