VISIT MY NEW WEB SITE: stephenlendman.org (Home – Stephen Lendman). Contact at [email protected].
History correctly told will equate America’s rape and destruction of Mosul to its gratuitous Hiroshima/Nagasaki nuking, along with its ruthless fire-bombing of Dresden and Toyko during WW II, three post-1948 Israeli terror wars on Gaza, imperial Japan’s rape of Nanking, and Nazi Germany’s infamous terror-bombing of Guernica, among other horrific high crimes of war and against humanity.
They flagrantly violated fundamental laws of war, grievously harming civilians most of all, massacring them indiscriminately.
Strategic bombing involves destroying an adversary’s economic and military ability to wage war. It targets its warmaking capacity and related infrastructure.
Terror bombing is another matter. It causes mass slaughter and destruction, grievously harming civilians, destroying or damaging nonmilitary related sites.
Geneva and other international laws forbid the targeting of civilians. The Laws of War: Laws and Customs of War on Land (1907 Hague IV Convention) states:
— Article 25: “The attack or bombardment, by whatever means, of towns, villages, dwellings, or buildings which are undefended is prohibited.”
— Article 26: “The officer in command of an attacking force must, before commencing a bombardment, except in cases of assault, do all in his power to warn the authorities.”
Article 27: “In sieges and bombardments, all necessary steps must be taken to spare, as far as possible, buildings dedicated to religion, art, science, or charitable purposes, historic monuments, hospitals, and places where the sick and wounded are collected, provided they are not being used at the time for military purposes.”
Fourth Geneva protects civilians in time of war. It prohibits violence of any type against them and requires treatment for the sick and wounded.
In September 1938, a League of Nations unanimous resolution prohibited the “bombardment of cities, towns, villages, dwellings or buildings not in the immediate neighborhood of the operations of land forces.”
“In cases where (legitimate targets) are so situated, (aircraft) must abstain from bombardment” if it indiscriminately harms civilians.
“The 1945 Nuremberg Principles prohibit “crimes against peace, war crimes and crimes against humanity,” – namely, “inhumane acts committed against any civilian populations, before or during the war,” including indiscriminate killing and “wanton destruction of cities, towns, or villages, or devastation not justified by military necessity.”
The 1968 General Assembly Resolution on Human Rights prohibits launching attacks against civilian populations. For America and Israel, it’s standard practice – by land, sea and terror bombings, flagrantly breaching fundamental rule of law principles.
The battle for Mosul began last October. Ruthless US-led terror-bombing massacred thousands of civilians, displaced hundreds of thousands more.
Iraq’s second largest city no longer exists. Months of terror-bombing turned it to rubble, unknown numbers of bodies buried beneath it, largely civilians – victims of US ruthlessness.
So-called liberated areas resemble a moonscape with no visible life. The battle of Mosul was a medieval massacre. The devastating human cost remains to be revealed in full.
Orchestrated coverup tries suppressing the horrors hundreds of thousands of defenseless civilians experienced from months of fighting – fearing US-led terror-bombing more than ISIS.
Unstated Pentagon rules of engagement permit anything goes. Defense Secretary James (“mad dog”) Mattis dismissively said “(c)ivilian casualties are a fact of life in this sort of situation” – ignoring US high crimes of war and against humanity in all its war theaters, Nuremberg-level crimes.
Civilians suffer most in all wars. Survival is a daily struggle. Contempt for their agony and trauma in all US war theaters reflects how a ruthless rogue state operates.
VISIT MY NEW WEB SITE: stephenlendman.org (Home – Stephen Lendman). Contact at [email protected].
My newest book as editor and contributor is titled “Flashpoint in Ukraine: How the US Drive for Hegemony Risks WW III.”
http://www.claritypress.com/LendmanIII.html
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Featured image: A bicyclist rides by the destroyed old Mosque of The Prophet Jirjis in central Mosul, Iraq on July 27, 2014.
