Doesn't that make headlines in America? Hospital bombing in Kunduz

[Faith No More]

So, it was the U.S. that bombed the hospital, and we're trying to divert the blame to the Afghani government.

A heavily-armed U.S. gunship designed to provide added firepower to special operations forces was responsible for shooting and killing 22 people at a Doctors Without Borders hospital in Kunduz, Afghanistan over the weekend, Pentagon officials said Monday.

The attack occurred in the middle of the night Saturday, when Afghan troops—together with a U.S. special forces team training and advising them—were on the ground near the hospital in Kunduz, the first major Afghan city to fall to the Taliban since the war began in 2001. The top U.S. general in Afghanistan said Monday the airstrike was requested by Afghan troops who had come under fire, contradicting earlier statements from Pentagon officials that the strike was ordered to protect U.S. forces on the ground.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/chec...in-kunduz/

We're number one! We're number one!

[Wyrd of Gawd]

I'd wait until further investigation is done before declaring it a war crime. Whilst I admit it's looking more likely, we need to know whether the attacking forces were aware it was a hospital when they authorized the strike.

If they weren't aware, either because they didn't check, or were misinformed, then it's an accident. It shouldn't have happened either way.

The hospital should have been clearly marked with the approved markings.
http://www.hrweb.org/legal/geneva1.html#Article%2023

"Article 42. The distinctive flag of the Convention shall be hoisted only over such medical units and establishments as are entitled to be respected under the Convention, and only with the consent of the military authorities. In mobile units, as in fixed establishments, it may be accompanied by the national flag of the Party to the conflict to which the unit or establishment belongs. Nevertheless, medical units which have fallen into the hands of the enemy shall not fly any flag other than that of the Convention. Parties to the conflict shall take the necessary steps, in so far as military considerations permit, to make the distinctive emblems indicating medical units and establishments clearly visible to the enemy land, air or naval forces, in order to obviate the possibility of any hostile action."

The hilarious thing is that the US had been whining two minutes before about the Russians using dumb bombs in Syria and killing civilians.  So if the hospital had been properly identified with the Geneva Convention markings then the US did in fact commit a deliberate war crime.  Therefore, since Obama is the Commander-in-Chief he should be charged with a war crime and prosecuted per the provisions in the Geneva Convention.

[abaris]

So, it was the U.S. that bombed the hospital, and we're trying to divert the blame to the Afghani government.

It may have been ordered by some Afghani commander, since this is how it obviously works. Ground forces from one nation callling the US for air support Ironically, a similar incident happened back in 2009, when the German colonel Georg Klein ordered an airstrike on civilians, he believed to be Taliban. Kunduz was under German administration back then. It was a big scandal in Germany, but nothing came out of it. And I suspect, this will face a similar outcome.

Because of the high civilian death toll, the airstrike had political repercussions, especially in Germany. In June 2010 Germany announced it would pay $5,000 to each of the families of over 100 civilian victims, as an ex gratia payment without admitting liability.[2] The former Afghan Commerce Minister Amin Farhang described the $5,000—equivalent to about 20,000 Afghanis—as a "laughable" sum.[5] Earlier, Germany had reclassified the Afghanistan deployment as an "armed conflict within the parameters of international law", allowing German forces to act without risk of prosecution under German law.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kunduz_airstrike

[Rhondazvous]

Yeah...but it is rather like the police investigating their own shootings of unarmed civilians.  Does any one have any confidence in those "investigations?"

More like trusting a fox to investigate an attack on a chickens coop. The feathers sticking to his muzzle constitutes only circumstantial evidence.

[Reforged]

I'd wait until further investigation is done before declaring it a war crime. Whilst I admit it's looking more likely, we need to know whether the attacking forces were aware it was a hospital when they authorized the strike.

If they weren't aware, either because they didn't check, or were misinformed, then it's an accident. It shouldn't have happened either way.

Whether they were aware or not I'm sure they'll say they weren't. 
"Oh that big red cross? I thought it was a target marker, you know... X marks the spot."

[abaris]

Main point, they're investigating themselves. If anything calls for an independent investigation, it's something like that. They may be honest in their intent, but whatever they come up with, will hold little weight internationally.

[Edwardo Piet]

I'm sure they'll use any loopholes they can to wriggle out of this one if they did it deliberately.

[Rhondazvous]

http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2..._nine.html

In a shocking detail, Doctors Without Borders said the airstrikes “continued for more than 30 minutes after American and Afghan military officials in Kabul and Washington were first informed by MSF that its hospital was struck.” The hospital’s location had also been reported to everyone before the bombing started. “MSF wishes to clarify that all parties to the conflict, including in Kabul and Washington, were clearly informed of the precise location (GPS Coordinates) of the MSF facilities in Kunduz, including the hospital, guesthouse, office and an outreach stabilization unit in Chardara northwest of Kunduz,” the charity added.

So they knew exactly where to put the X.

[Faith No More]

Main point, they're investigating themselves. If anything calls for an independent investigation, it's something like that. They may be honest in their intent, but whatever they come up with, will hold little weight internationally.

The U.S. military doesn't have an honest bone in its body when it comes to covering its ass. Hopefully Doctors Without Borders can get an outside inquiry going.

[Edwardo Piet]

I agree but I bet the UK is just as dishonest.