You can tell its a bad year when the words ‘war crime’ come up more than once. Sadly there will always be leaders in the world for whom war crimes are matter of fact, but it’s rare you’ll hear it in connection with the free West… until now.
In the past 8 months, war crimes have been linked to two western world leaders: one former, another a future leader. Unfortunately war crimes doesn’t muster up much that I can really grasp. The scope and breadth of devastation can’t really be contained in two words, and as such I simply accept that it’s bad and move on.
This is, of course, the wrong thing to do. Our ears should automatically prick up when we hear ‘war crimes’, which is hard to do with your head buried in the sand. Accusations of any crime against an authority can’t be taken lightly, and if 2016 has taught us anything, it’s that we’re all now responsible for maintaining reality and doing what’s right.
What is a War Crime
Believe it or not, there’s a law of war. It’s an international law limiting and laying out justifications for and acceptable actions in conflict. It’s an almost charming idea – that despite the awful circumstances that lead to war, all parties agree to act within a certain set of rules. These are intended to protect all involved, safeguard human rights, and achieve peace as soon as possible.
The following are considered war crimes under the law of war: taking hostages, rape and torture, using weapons that cause undue suffering or superfluous injury, using child soldiers, killing or threatening to kill civilians or prisoners of war, destroying civilian property, pillaging, and perfidy.
These aren’t going to make a Buzzfeed best of list anytime soon. Its a roll call of horror, so how on earth have a previous UK PM and the now President of US both had a brush with war crime accusations?
Tony Blair
Some of us watched with bated breath at the release of the Chilcot Report back in July. For those not in the know (or simply too young), the Chilcot Enquiry was looking into the events surrounding the Iraq war and whether our justifications for it were illegal.
I won’t go into detail, though it’s a history you should know. Many protested the war and afterwards felt that Tony Blair’s behind-the-scenes actions contravened the law of war. When the Chilcot report came out, we all expected a wishy-washy statement that solved nothing.
What we actually got was pretty damning against Blair. However, the enquiry’s purpose was to investigate, not legally charge the former PM. In the end, it was simply confirmation for those that opposed the war and a wake up call for everyone else.
The UK has some seriously shit history. We did a lot of bad things to a lot of people all in the name of the Empire. It’s something we have to acknowledge, live with and learn from. We’d like to put it all behind us. But when our last Labour leader is deemed a war criminal, we need to rethink just how far behind us these bad dealings really are.
Donald Trump
Of course Trump would be mentioned at some point. Before his inauguration, Trump’s blathering and bolshy views were too often swept aside. We had the naive belief that, come November, they wouldn’t matter. Now he has the greatest power on earth at his stubby fingertips and those comments are a lot scarier.
In a TV interview in December 2015, Trump said the US should target and kill the families of terrorists. The anchors’ reactions are pretty priceless, but this isn’t funny. He went further, however. When a General stated the military wouldn’t carry out illegal orders, Trump merely responded “they’re not going to refuse me, believe me“.
On top of this, he’s also spoken a lot on the subject of torture. He wants to compete with ISIS brutality: “We have to play the game the way they’re playing the game”. It was mentioned this would be illegal, and Trump started talking about simply changing the laws. He wants to allow torture methods like military waterboarding, which makes captives feel like they’re drowning over an extended period. According to Trump, “nobody knows if it’s torture”.
Trust us on this one Donald. The world has been slowly drowning in your ignorant, lying diatribe for the last two years, and we can safely assure you it’s torture.
Our Job
If we cast our minds back to that war crimes list, you’ll remember targeting civilians and torture were big no-nos. What Trump is threatening to do is a war crime. Its a threat he’s made more than once to audiences in the millions. Just to reiterate: a president has openly, unabashedly and repeatedly stated he would commit an internationally illegal act on TV.
Nixon hadn’t even admitted to illegalities before he was impeached and booted out the White House. So we really need to ask why this has simply been accepted as yet another Trumpism. Because by now we’ve learned he’ll do everything he promised just to prove he can.
It’s vital we no longer let these remarks go unnoticed and unchallenged. Knowledge is key, and we need to know the law, even if our so-called leaders don’t.
The post War Crimes: They’re Not Just For ‘Foreigners’ appeared first on Felix Magazine.
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