By Robin Shepherd
Leaks on mass civilian casualties in Afghanistan could form basis for Goldstone style prosecutions against US, Britain and other coalition countries
This weekend’s release of thousands of secret official files about coalition operations in Afghanistan paints a harrowing picture of the fog of war, most troubling of all of the accidental killings by our soldiers of hundreds of innocent civilians – revellers at wedding parties, kids in school buses, ordinary people going about their daily business who tragically found themselves in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Given that the Taliban systematically hides behind the civilian population this sort of thing is, of course, inevitable. Nonetheless, it is understandable that the revelations by Wikileaks have caused embarrassment to the governments of all the coalition countries.
But for those coalition countries in Europe – Britain first among them – who are currently cheerleading the passage of the Goldstone Report on Gaza through the United Nations this is more than an embarrassment. In the light of Goldstone, it represents an outright threat to the security of their soldiers on the ground as well as to their national interests in international tribunals.
In my experience, the MidEast crowd at the British Foreign Office and its equivalents elsewhere in Europe tend to be a little on the slow side. So, let me spell this out so there is no ambiguity.
International laws, norms and procedures to a great extent operate on the basis of precedent. So when Britain and other European countries allowed the Arab dictatorships to push a report through the United Nations specifically designed to criminalise the Israeli military’s attempts to deal with terrorists hiding behind a civilian population in Gaza, they simultaneously set a precedent for all countries, including their own.
Now that it has been revealed — via official documents — that British soldiers, for example, have been involved in exactly the same kind of operations against exactly the same kind of terror groups using exactly the same tactics and resulting in exactly the same kind of outcomes in terms of the loss of civilian lives, British soldiers and ministers could face exactly the same kind of censure and penalties as Israel.
This could range from the purely verbal assaults of the kind mounted by European governments during Operation Cast Lead right up to prosecutions in international tribunals or through universal jurisdiction laws in countries around the world that have adopted them.
Of course, I am using Goldstone as both a concrete precedent in its own right, but also as a proxy for the whole panoply of terror-appeasement policies and norms that outfits such as the British Foreign Office have allowed to develop, or have actively supported, in the international community over decades.
The Foreign Office and its equivalents are thus proved not merely to have been engaged in the vilest of discriminatory hypocrisy over Israel, Goldstone and all that it represents, they are shown to have been deliberately and wilfully allowing a depraved anti-Israeli agenda to take precedence over their own national interests.
I didn’t realise that undermining one’s own military or one’s own national interests was what our diplomats were being paid to do. Perhaps they would care to comment?
Tags: Israel
This entry was posted on Monday, July 26th, 2010 at 11:52 amand is filed under Blog. You can follow any responses to this entry through my RSS feed.
One Response to “Leaks on mass civilian casualties in Afghanistan could form basis for Goldstone style prosecutions against US, Britain and other coalition countries”
1. Peter Davenport Says:
July 26th, 2010 at 12:12 pm
Excellent analysis, as usual, Robin. Of course, even though American and British politicians might be liable for prosecutions through universal jurisdiction laws, in practice I doubt whether this would happen. Although termed “universal”, the intended targets of these laws have always been very specific – namely, Jews, or to use the palatable, modern term, Israelis.
« British democratic values threatened as courts invoked against MP calling for Burka ban and Conservative ministers back Islamisation
Thanks Ken, I know how to steal the eggs and I make when the inspiration is there a Killer omlet.
Sounds like you had some bad experience with Romanians? Had a Romanian girlfriend once, blond blue eyed and a body that most in Hollywood would envy. She was anything but a chicken thief. She was an engineer and tough as nails but had some redeemable qualities. My biggest disappointments in that dept. were always the American Broads, they use the law to steal from the guys.
Yamit: tomorrow morning when you get up have a wholesome breakfast. You might be best off with an omelet. now I am quoting from a terrific Romanian recipe book.
How to make a delicious Romananian omelet.
Step 1. Go out and steal an egg……………..
Uncle Nahum (Yamit)listen, don’t leave yet. Who is going to fight for G-d? Who will push for building the Third Temple?
Who will keep the liberals on the run?
That’s just 3 reasons for not leaving. There are countless others.
Stick around
I have no intention of dieing at least not yet and god forbid I should give Martel more bandwidth. 😉
Don’t die on us, goddammit! If you croak, it means more bandwidth for Martel. Unacceptable!
Joy says to wish you a speedy recovery (she’s very schmaltzy). She’s going out for the day, but wants me to tell you she’ll email you later.
Thanks again, I’ll settle for Jack Daniels once I’m off the meds. It’s in the 90’s here and I don’t cook in the summer as a rule. I don’t like cooking for myself in any event.
There is an antibiotic for the Palis, it’s called 9mm bullets.
Trust Lauri will be fine. I gather your cats are free to roam around the landscape keeping other critters away from the house.
If that’s the case they are not declawed and although they don’t intend to scratch you, it happens.
By the way is there an antibiotic for Palestinian infections? If not, strong arm technique is recommended.
Imagine their own flag in Washington. I wouldn’t mind if it were being used to stick up obama ass, otherwise forget it.
Get well, by the way Sunday I made some homemade chicken soup, lots of carrots, celery and onion, I was thinking of Ayn. I froze some and had a couple of bowls each morning so far. Enough for two bowls, and add pastina. Chicken soup with celery, good Jewish medicine.
Thanks ron, I have an infection and with antibiotics it will clear up in a week or so. The cats will be the death of me as every scratch or nick can bring on another infection. Symptoms are high fever for 18-24 hours and I passed that stage.
Waiting to hear about Lauri the cat she was highly anemic and weak for such a stressful operation, I should hear in about 2 hours
Kendraa I don’t see why America hasn’t recouped at least a good part of the war costs from Iraqi oil production.
Afghanistan? Nobody ever defeated those Israelites. Some Jews still know how to fight. America never had a chance and America is far less ruthless than were the defeated Russians.
The real war aim was to pacify The country, install a friendly puppet so that oil and gas pipelines can be built across the the country from the Caucasus’s. It’s all about energy and wealth.
War Crimes, wait until after America leaves and the real stories come out. Wasteful governments? Maybe criminal but not a war crime.
Uncle, you okay? Well, I mean.
Been there done that but I managed to escape.
yamit:
Are you the Israeli Wiki leaki pippi?.If you are you might be sentenced to a lifetime of flicking chickens in a maximum security kibbutz.
Bill Levinson:
It is a war crime! But not directed at the Afghanis- but targetting the American taxpayer, the American armed forces and the western world in general.
Bill we have been paying through the nose for endless, futile, poorly planned, unfocussed wars without any real understanding of the enemy, no understanding what the purpose of the invasion and the true goal.
Each year the situation in Afghanistan gets progressively worse and our forces are suffering horrendously.
If that does not consitute a war crime, what does?
Perhaps you don’t pay taxes, perhaps you are a member of the IWW union (I won’t work), and perhaps you just don’t care. But I certainly do.
I am mad as all hell, and I won’t take it any more.
The country which tortures Jews
Imagine the outcry if Jewish suspects were tortured in any other country. In Israel, it goes without notice.
According to Pearlman’s attorney, his client is handcuffed to a chair for 18 hours a day with interrogators shouting in both his ears simultaneously. Pearlman is also being subjected to severe psychological torture.
Pearlman is probably innocent, but in any case, what crime he is charged with? Murdering four Arabs? The officially sanctioned Jewish heroes—men like Avraham Stern, Menachem Begin, Yitzhak Shamir, Raful, and Ariel Sharon—murdered them in droves.
Jews pay for stolen land
The mayor of the Bedouin town of Rahat is demanding that the government install solar battery fields on Bedouin land.
Never mind the racism. The media would have been up in arms if a settler demanded government investment in “Jewish” land.
Never mind the absurdity. Bedouins steal just about everything there is to steal, and would be the first to steal the expensive solar equipment.
Never mind the oddity of the government subsidizing ultra-expensive solar energy when we have huge gas fields and the technology for nuclear power stations.
But the land the Bedouins want to lease to us is not theirs. They squat on state land, and now the want the government to pay for the land they stole from the Jewish state.
Torah under police investigation
Imagine Ukrainian police arresting a rabbi over a book on Jewish religious law. Or Polish anti-Semites demanding censoring some of the more militant chapters of the Talmud.
It happened in Israel. Police detained respected rabbi Yitzhak Shapira over his book, Teachings of the King. The book is a scholarly study of Jewish religious laws on killing their enemies who, naturally enough, happen to be non-Jews.
Israeli law exempts religious studies from the definition of racism, but they may fall under the crime of incitement. Rabbi Kahane was barred from elections even though he submitted to the Supreme Court detailed evidence that every detail of his political platform is strictly based on Jewish religious law.
The fools who lead Israel should have dismissed Goldstone out of hand. Instead they appeased the UN jackals and conducted an investigation even throwing some of their own soldiers under the bus for good measure. All in a vain attempt to appease implacable enemies.