Posted on 03/23/2022 11:32:15 AM PDT by McGruff
The US government has formally declared that members of the Russian armed forces have committed war crimes in Ukraine, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement Wednesday.
The official US declaration that Moscow has violated the laws of conflict comes after Blinken, President Joe Biden and Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman all said it was their personal opinion that war crimes have taken place.
"Today, I can announce that, based on information currently available, the US government assesses that members of Russia's forces have committed war crimes in Ukraine," Blinken said in a statement.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
“War crimes should not be scoffed at.”
That depends entirely on the accuser and their authority.
Reakpolitik puts “war crimes” clearly in the eyes of the beholder and the most subjective of all criminal charges.
Nuremberg was convened by the victors after destruction of the Axis. That convention created law to prosecute.
This sort of information should be held private until hostilities have ended.
Shouldn’t you wait until the war is over and someone has surrendered before you start prosecuting? Because if you do so in the middle of the war when there’s no one in custody then you have essentially debased the “war crimes” charge to merely a war tactic propaganda. The charge of “war crimes” will not carry the same weight after this.
I believe that I am exercising the appropriate level of skepticism. And I am not reliant solely upon this administration's press releases.
Invading another country without provocation, with the goal of seizing some (or all?) of that country's territory in order to permanently absorb it, and to drive off or otherwise "dispose" of unwanted ethnicities, is a war crime by any reasonable definition of the term.
Do you disagree?
Regards,
So, what is the UN going to DO about it, send Vlad a strongly worded letter? :)
The UN and The Hague are largely toothless.
I won’t hold my breath waiting for anything to come out of this latest proclamation.
That depends entirely on the accuser and their authority.
So, you're saying that, given the amount and quantity of information currently available to us concerning Russia's "Special Military Action" in the Ukraine, scoffing is warranted at present?!
Regards,
What I am making light of is the utter lack of public information on what is actually going on in the war. It’s all going swimmingly for the Ukrainians and it’s a living hell for the Russians, if there are any left that are not being presently pummeled into annihilation.
Some of us are just sick to death of the propagandizing to the exclusion of any real and credible information. Until there is some modicum of objectivity in reporting I will choose to believe nothing and poke ridicule at the would be propagandists which include the entirety of the press and the organs of the US government.
What about the Afghan family Joe took out with a drone?
Never accuse someone of committing war crimes until after winning the war.
If you want to apply the rule strictly, all war contains an aggressor and a defender and all aggressors have committed war crimes simply by virtue of being the aggressor. However, I would prefer to use the war crimes charge only for intentional targeting of non combatants or for planning to use military forces to do great harm and damage many times greater than necessary to win the war.
No, you were not making light of the utter lack of public information.
Probably at no time in history has there been such a wealth of information available to the public a mere 27 days into an armed conflict of this nature. Even if some of that information (video clips which appear to have been doctored, or which simply aren't properly dated or where it's not even really clear whether it's Russian or Ukrainian troops who are being killed) is suspect.
Do you think that the American public had more or better info in the weeks following Dec. 7, 1941?
Your attempt at "making light of the matter" was entirely without merit, was biased (favoring only the isolationist side), and contributed nothing substantive to the discussion.
How can they? I thought the Russians were all dead, killed by dancing queens with attitude.
Regards,
Well, the day you sit on a War Crimes Tribunal will be the day when you will be free to apply your own, personal preferences.
Regards,
So they are going by the lies spread by the demented Ukrainians? That makes sense.
It couldn’t have been by Biden in Afghanastan? No way...
Must. Wag. Dog. Harder.
“If any war crimes are being committed, it’s by Azov bastards that are killing civilians trying to leave major population centers. There are plenty of videos of residents out there proving that.”
Yup. Real live, actual NAZI’s. Swastikas and everything.
The giant 13 billion cf bill just passed giving Ukraine another gazillion of your grandkid’s money? An amendment got shot down banning any of the cash from going to NAZIs.
It failed.
They all know.
And are OK with it.
“War crimes should not be scoffed at.”
Is that you, “Call me Colonel!” Vindman?
Yet they still haven't declared that Covid came from Wuhan China.
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