War Crimes

Let’s call it what it really is, what happened at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq is not in accordance with the Geneva Convention, which the US signed, and should be brought to justice under those rules. I think it’s apparent to anyone who’s been following the news on this or who has seen the pictures of the abuse, that the soldier’s involved should have known what they were doing was wrong but I hardly think they acted on their own. The bigger question is how far up the ranks does the abuse spread?

There are well-documented war crimes committed by US soldiers in the Vietnam War, but did the military make any changes to counter that type of behavior? If you’ve read prisoner accounts of the abuses at the Guantanamo Bay prison, what happened in Iraq is not very surprising.

Not only are there reported war crimes of US soldiers against the Iraqis, but against our own soldiers. The recent attacks and rapes of over 129 female soldiers (129 are reported in Kuwait, Iraq, Afghanistan and Bahrain) could also could be considered war crimes and not, as one “advocate” called it, friendly fire.

The most appalling aspect of these war crimes is that they might just be a reflection of the systemic violence that has pervaded the American society. In America every two minutes someone is sexually assaulted , and while overall violent crime is in decline, murder rates have remained somewhat constant and even increased in the south and in many urban areas. The more daunting question is what is it that is making our society so violent?

posted by Sarai @ 2:14 PM