Did the U.S. violate the Geneva Conventions?
Saturday the afghan city Kunduz was targeted in a U.S. airstrike. The airstrike struck the city's main hospital killing 12 medical staff members and 10 patients (37 more were wounded). Although the pentagon is calling the event an accident, new evidence is surfacing that suggests the hospital was strategically targeted by the U.S. government which would be a violation of the Geneva Convention. The aid group "Doctors without borders" has released a public statement regarding the attack saying "Their description of the attack keeps changing -- from collateral damage, to a tragic incident, to now attempting to pass responsibility to the Afghanistan government". In July the aid group condemned a violent assault on the hospital by afghan special forces where the forces forcefully entered the hospital (which has a strict no weapons policy), assaulted staff members, and arrested three patients. There reasoning was that intelligence revealed the possibility of Taliban members being sheltered in the hospital. This has many suspicious that the government purposely targeted the hospital. Doctors without borders has condemned it a war crime by the U.S. government.
What do you think about this? Is the U.S. government guilty? And if so what will the consequences be?
Sources:
http://www.cnn.com/2015/10/07/asia/doctors-without-borders-afghanistan-airstrike/index.html
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/oct/07/doctors-without-borders-bombing-no-advance-warning-aid-charity-says
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/afghanistan-hospital-airstrike-us-rules-of-engagement/
2 comments:
Steve, while I do not think the US government intends to harm innocent people, I do know that their aerial technology and intelligence is state-of-the-art, and I find it hard to believe that such a huge disaster. Three innocent children will killed, including 19 other civilians. In a 2011 NPR article, it was stated that with US pilots, "you can be assured that he's going to hit the thing that you want him to hit" (NPR). With that being said, and although mistakes do happen, I think there might be some foul play stemming from the Pentagon. They've changed their story three times on the issue already, and President Obama made a statement that it is a "tragic incident." MSF has claimed that the attack was sustained for around half an hour (The Intercept). If it was truly an just an incident, the commanders of the air strike would have realized the mistake. A hospital was bombed by Americans, and there are prices that need to be paid. I can only imagine what the response would be like if the Afghani government bombed one of our hospitals.
Sources:
http://www.npr.org/2011/03/24/134832715/How-Precise-Are-Air-Strikes
https://theintercept.com/2015/10/05/the-radically-changing-story-of-the-u-s-airstrike-on-afghan-hospital-from-mistake-to-justification/
Although I do not believe that the U.S. meant to harm any innocent people, I think it is clear that the U.S. targeted this specific location. Our military's technology and intelligence is one of the most advanced in the world, and the constantly shifting story as to what exactly happened makes it seem as if the U.S. is looking for excuses. That being said, I do not think that this attack was completely unjustified. I believe that the U.S. had abundant information that led them to believe that this building was an area that they needed to attack. They definitely were incorrect, but the U.S. would not have launched an attack unless they were very confident in it being successful. It is tragic that innocent lives were lost, and the U.S. seems to be at fault, but it is not easy to make these decisions in war. Now the U.S. must pay the consequences of this mistake, something that will probably come out in the next few weeks.
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