« Seymour Hersh Says Hillary Approved Sending Libya’s Sarin to Syrian RebelsChina Denies US Carrier Group Hong Kong Port Call »

Pentagon Whitewashes Mass Murder

May 1st, 2016

Stephen Lendman

America considers civilians legitimate targets in all its wars of aggression. Fundamental laws of war prohibit attacking them - ignored in all US combat operations.

CENTCOM lied, calling its October 3, 2015 bombing of the Kunduz, Afghanistan Doctors Without Borders (MSF) hospital a “tragic incident.”

It turned truth on its head, claiming “personnel involved did not know that they were striking a medical facility. The intended target was an insurgent-controlled site which was approximately 400 meters away…”

CENTCOM commander General Joseph Votel willfully lied, claiming US forces “had no idea” they were attacking a medical facility.

False! CENTCOM knew it was an MSF hospital, yet ordered the attack anyway, falsely claiming it was used as a Taliban command and control center - before acknowledging otherwise.

Dozens of doctors, other medical staff and patients were massacred in cold blood, many others injured, victims of US imperial viciousness.

MSF provided CENTCOM and Afghan authorities with precise hospital coordinates several times. While under attack, it informed their authorities about what was happening, the facility struck multiples times for over an hour with precision weapons - a war crime by any standard.

MSF called the attack an “abhorrent and a grave violation of international humanitarian law. (A) war crime (was) committed.”

The Pentagon denied MSF’s demand for an independent investigation into what happened - conducted its own to whitewash mass murder.

CENTCOM’s report acknowledged violations of rules of engagement and laws of war breaches, while at the same time denying culpability for an indisputable high crime.

Votel said more than a dozen US servicemen were disciplined for what happened, meaningless wrist slaps at most. None face criminal charges for deliberate mass murder. Coverup and denial reflect longstanding Pentagon practice.

CENTCOM’s commander willfully lied, saying “(t)he investigation found that the incident resulted from a combination of unintentional human errors, process errors and equipment failures, and that none of the personnel knew they were striking a hospital.”

“The trauma center was a protected facility but it was misidentified during this engagement.” It was on a “no strike” list, its precise location known, yet willfully attacked anyway without just cause.

In response to CENTCOM’s whitewash, MSF’s Meinie Nicolai called Votel’s briefing “an admission of an uncontrolled military operation in a densely populated urban area.”

“It is incomprehensible that, under the circumstances described by the US, the attack was not called off.”

“The threshold that must be crossed for this deadly incident to amount to a grave breach of international humanitarian law is not whether it was intentional or not.”

“(A)rmed groups cannot escape their responsibilities on the battlefield simply by ruling out the intent to attack a protected structure such as a hospital.”

“(V)ictims and their families have neither the option to pursue legal action (for justice) nor claim compensation for loss of life and livelihood.”

America commits war crimes with impunity in all its theaters of conflict. US warplanes destroyed or damaged several Syrian and Iraqi hospitals along with numerous nonmilitary related sites, these actions continuing on a regular basis.

Pentagon coverup and denial doesn’t wash. Repeated high crimes go unpunished - naked aggression without mercy most of all, attacking nonbelligerent nations threatening no one, raping and destroying them, the highest of high crimes.

NYT editors disgracefully called mass murdering and injuring dozens of MSF doctors, medical staff and patients a mistake, a catastrophe, “gross negligence,” and war zone blunder - failing to condemn a willful war crime and demand full accountability.

They ludicrously cited Pentagon officials claiming “they acted promptly to retrain all troops in Afghanistan about the rules for using deadly force and…have taken precautions” to avoid repeat incidents.

They continue on a regular basis in all US war theaters. Mass civilian casualties don’t matter, considered a small price to pay to advance America’s imperium - an agenda the NYT wholeheartedly endorses.

-###-

Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.

His new book as editor and contributor is titled "Flashpoint in Ukraine: How the US Drive for Hegemony Risks World War III".

http://www.claritypress.com/LendmanIII.html

Visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com.

Listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network.

It airs three times weekly: live on Sundays at 1PM Central time plus two prerecorded archived programs

No feedback yet

Voices

Voices

  • By David Swanson, World BEYOND War According to Columbia Magazine , published by Columbia University’s Office of Alumni and Development, but ultimately named for a brutal imperialist mercenary, in 1933 while Nazis in Germany were burning books by Jews,…
  • Paul Craig Roberts Trump and Zelensky have agreed on a cease fire, a pause in the conflict. How does this benefit Russia? It doesn’t. The Ukrainian military is collapsing on all fronts. 86% of the Ukrainian incursion into Kursk has been retaken, and the…
  • Tracy Turner Chupacabra America: A nation gripped by greed, excess, and decline. Explore the stark contrast between America's stagnant Trumpcession societal rot and Europe's prosperous sustainable progress in this eye-opening critique by Tracy Turner.…
  • Cathy Smith Explore the decline of modern Christianity from televangelist scandals and prosperity gospel corruption to church schisms and socioeconomic divides, this analysis reveals how materialism and greed have overshadowed the transformative spirit…
  • Chris Spencer Syria's Alawites were seen as favored by the regime of Bashar al Assad, now more than 1,300 Alawites have been murdered in 2025 in Syria. Early 2025 saw Syria's fragile post-Assad situation degenerate into a brutal cycle of sectarian…
  • Fred Gransville There was something unusual on the White House driveway on March 11, 2025. Elon Musk was selling Tesla vehicles in collaboration with Donald Trump, the sitting President of the United States. From conducting business at the White House…
  • By Tracy Turner Uncover the toxic history of U.S. industrial and military pollution, from Hanford to Camp Lejeune. This inquiry exposes how government and corporate inaction have led to cancer clusters, ecological destruction, and human agony. Explore…
  • By Mark Aurelius 70% of Palestinians killed by Israel in Gaza are women and children This essay contains controversial statements that could alarm people who are not tolerant of contentious assertions or questions, such as regarding religious beliefs,…
  • Tracy Turner The economic crisis of 2025 under the leadership of Donald Trump and Elon Musk draws alarming parallels to the Great Depression of 1929, exacerbated by the dismantling of critical U.S. infrastructure and the breakdown of federal regulatory…
  • Dr. Vladislav B. Sotirovic Hamas, or according to its full name, “Islamic Resistance Movement”, is a Palestinian political-national organization with a military wing of a conservative Islamic nature and orientation. Its purpose is to resist the Israeli…
March 2025
Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat
 << <   > >>
            1
2 3 4 5 6 7 8
9 10 11 12 13 14 15
16 17 18 19 20 21 22
23 24 25 26 27 28 29
30 31          

  XML Feeds

Blog software
FAIR USE NOTICE: This site contains copyrighted articles and information about environmental, political, human rights, economic, democratic, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. This news and information is displayed without profit for educational purposes, in accordance with, Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107 of the US Copyright Law. Thepeoplesvoice.org is a non-advocacy internet web site, edited by non-affiliated U.S. citizens. editor
ozlu Sozler GereksizGercek Hava Durumu Firma Rehberi Hava Durumu Firma Rehberi E-okul Veli Firma Rehberi