War Crimes and Necessary Reactions
During the horrors of prosecuting a war, who is to say what constitutes a war crime, when one army pushes back against another for whom no universally agreed upon treaties are respected in their overwhelming search for superiority and victory. One group, for example, during the Second World War, the Allies, considered themselves morally superior than the Axis countries whose debasement of humanity knew no moral bounds.In defence of those who took it upon themselves to pursue avenues that during times of peace they would find morally repugnant, but who faced the reality of an enemy respectful of no ethical or moral boundaries, one can only claim that defence requires any means at one's disposal in a life and death encounter with a ruthless enemy. It is a given that an army battles an army. That civilians are never deliberately targeted.
And that just happens to be a colossal lie. Not only are civilians those for whom the greatest loss of life remains a reality in wars, but they are also deliberately targeted. By those whose brutality and willingness to sacrifice everything for victory leads them to violate all principles of humanity, and by those whose empathy for the vulnerable leads them to regret the necessity of sacrificing them for the larger goal of defeating the enemy.
Sir Arthur Harris of British Bomber Command was not hesitant to admit the aim of Bomber Command: "...the destruction of German cities; the killing of German workers; and the disruption of civilized life throughout Germany... The destruction of houses, public utilities, transport and lives; the creation of a refugee problem on an unprecedented scale; and the breakdown of morale both at home and at the battle fronts by fear of extended and intensified bombing, are accepted and intended aims of our bombing policy. There are not by-products of attempts to hit factories."
That's fairly unequivocal, and heartless, and descriptive of the realities of war. So it has always been, so it will always be. All the more so when death can be delivered so casually, without human contact, through the far-reaching instruments of war, hurtling through the sky at 'pin-point' targets. The kind of combat seen in Africa, still medieval in style by contrast to the high-tech wars fought elsewhere in the world, remain close up and personal.
And there, where machetes as well as AK-47s are used, atrocities are of a different kind, but not necessarily of a different scale. Committed mass murderers in insurgent armies in African can achieve death numbers comparable to bomb-lobbing European powers flying high over civilized urban areas, deliberately choosing to impact on the morale of their opponents.
In the case of Dresden and Hamburg, so often agonized over by historians who have themselves never experienced anything remotely like the stifling and overwhelming circumstances of war, rank with blood and rotting bodies, condescending complaints of inhumanity come easily enough. Beautiful, historical, architecturally irreplaceable Dresden horribly firebombed, its people tragically targeted.
And the seaport Hamburg, where its Jewish population was handily rounded up and transported to Auschwitz so the German population could take advantage of their vacated properties, post Allied bombing. And Dresden, with its prototype gas chamber where physically and mentally handicapped, and exhausted slave labourers were murdered, its facilities serving as a model for later installations at Auschwitz, Birkeneau and other Nazi death camps.
Nothing, clearly, justifies taking human life in vain. Nothing, equally confidently justifies war. The conclusion is clear. What is the remedy?
Labels: Political Realities, Societal Failures, World Crises
posted by Pieface @ Tuesday, February 17, 2009
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