Afghanistan..troops out NOW!

[Oldandeasilyconfused]

We should support the troops ... ultimately it isn't them who are to blame, they are doing a difficult job with honour and no thanks.

Really. I was under the impression the US has a 100% volunteer army. The responsibility of soldiers for their actions was established by [US lead] Nuremberg Wars Crimes Tribunal in 1946,The Tribunal rejected what is now called "the Nuremberg defence" Viz " I was only following orders"


The invasion of Iraq and the prosecution of the war since is a war crime under the provisions of The Nuremberg Tribunal.


There is nothing honourable in kiling other human beings,no mater how necessary one might believe it to be.

In every war in the last 100 years, civilian deaths have ALWAYS outnumbered those of combatants.



NUREMBERG DEFENCE


The Nuremberg Defense is a legal defense that essentially states that the defendant was "only following orders" ("Befehl ist Befehl", literally "order is order") and is therefore not responsible for his crimes. The defense was most famously employed during the Nuremberg Trials, after which it is named.

Before the end of World War II, the Allies suspected such a defense might be employed, and issued the London Charter of the International Military Tribunal (IMT), which specifically stated that following an unlawful order is not a valid defense against charges of war crimes.

Thus, under Nuremberg Principle IV, "defense of superior orders" is not a defense for war crimes, although it might influence a sentencing authority to lessen the penalty. Nuremberg Principle IV states:

"The fact that a person acted pursuant to order of his Government or of a superior does not relieve him from responsibility under international law, provided a moral choice was in fact possible to him."

This defense is still used often, however, reasoning that an unlawful order presents a dilemma from which there is no legal escape. One who refuses an unlawful order will still probably be jailed for refusing orders, and one who accepts one will probably be jailed for committing unlawful acts, in a Catch-22 dilemma.



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuremberg_d...inal_Court


See also "command responsibility"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Command_responsibility

ACTUAL CHARGES [made against the Germans] include:

2. Planning, initiating and waging wars of aggression and other crimes against peace

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_war_crimes


The invasion of Iraq has been widely interpreted as a war of aggression.