War Crimes and the Perpetual Cycle

I’m not really sure if people still care about war crimes that happen, or what the tragedy of all these small proxy wars are. In fact, I’m sure most people don’t think tragedy’s where civilians are killed can happen in the modern world. So let’s take a journey down memory lane in the past year and a half… shall we?

July 17th, 2014. MH17 left Amsterdam Airport Schiphol towards Kuala Lumpur International Airport. While taking it’s routine path through Europe, it entered the Pro-Russian controlled airspace of Ukraine. Low flight areas were restricted in the Eastern Ukraine as there was an on going war, but the airliner was cruising at 33,000 feet, above the restricted flight zone. While on its way, a Russian SAM (Surface-to-Air-Missile) detected it, and proceeded to fire, its anti-air warhead striking the cockpit of MH17. The explosion was reportedly powerful enough to cut the plane in half and shatter metal fragments all over the plane, killing the crew members, and as the plane fell and started to break apart before hitting the ground, all 298 people on board the plane died.

Furthermore, the Dutch sent a team to go recover the remains of the plane. While the Ukraine government let them, the “Pro-Russian forces” didn’t let them access the area for quite a while. Eventually, they were able to gather enough data to figure out the causes of the crash. Now, you might be wondering why I put the words “‘Pro-Russian forces’“ in quotations. The simple answer is this wasn’t the work of Ukrainian rebels, this was clearly the work of a more insidious group.

*cough* Russia. *cough*

If you’ve been following any of the reports in the past year or so about the conflict in Ukraine, reports have said and have proven that Russian troops and weapons are deployed in the conflict. Vladimir Putin, president of Russia, has denied any accusations of Russia’s involvement in Ukraine. But, if you’re gonna trust a man who’s a former KGB agent… then ya know, be my guest.

And, with reports of Russian troops and equipment on the border, and Russia arming the Ukraine rebels, doesn’t it seem a bit odd that it was a Russian anti-air device. So I’m going to point to Russia, and say that they are responsible for all 298 deaths. And you know what? Nothing will happen. All evidence is conclusive in the report.

1. No other aircraft in the area to collide with.
2. Multiple impact zones and burns from high velocity objects.
3. It was shot down by a Russian weapon.
4. There was no distress call or warnings.
5. Forensics show the shrapnel from anti-air missiles in the bodies of the crew.
6. The plane was on a civilian travel mission, and was flying roughly along standard aircraft route.

The Russians and the the “Pro-Russians” should be held accountable, as definitions state for an act of violence to be brought upon a third party group of civilians, the intentional killing of civilians and the reckless actions they took of not verifying targets costs the lives of almost 300 people. Media brushed it off, if it’s not sensational then it’s not worth their supposed time. If it was 298 Americans dead, then you bet that there would be a different reaction. So apparently the Netherlands and it’s people aren’t valued as important, or upholding the Geneva Convention’s laws.

FAQ.

Q: So why am I bringing it up if this happened last year?
A: Because new evidence from the Dutch Safety Board has released video recreation of the attack, case filings and official reports confirming everything.

Q: Who’s going to win this war?
A: Probably the Russians

Q: Pff, those are the Russians. We wouldn’t do something like that.
A: You’d be wrong.

October 3rd, 2015, city of Kunduz in Afghanistan. For those who don’t know, the Taliban are starting to rear their head again. ISIS is pretty popular nowadays, so I guess they want their 10 minutes of fame. When they occupied the city of Kunduz a nearby hospital being occupied by the “Doctors Without Borders,” charity and clinic was hit by an airstrike. Reportedly, the people inside the hospital contacted the U.S forces and told them they were firing on civilians but the airstrikes continued to rock the area for another hour. An unspecified number of people are missing or dead but we can expect a 15-30 dead, with 30 or more wounded.

Now, let me make a small rebuttal to that. The Taliban have been known to use schools and hospitals when defending territories but this was a major “drop the ball,” or “screwed the pooch,” kinda moment for the U.S military. With all the modern technology we have, ways of identification, aerial reconnaissance and laser guiding missiles we still make mistakes. Those doctors knew the risks, but c’mon. How do we let this happen?

Maybe it wasn’t a mistake. Seeing as though the U.S army has changed its story on the matter four times already, but that’s not the real focus here. The real focus is this has happened, who should be held accountable, and how do we prevent this? It’s not nearly as severe as the incident with the Russians, but it’s still the killing of civilians.

There’s so many other examples, Israel and Palestine, Iraq and Syria, Boko Haram in Africa. All these humanitarian violations are happening all around the world and no one wants to stand up to them.

The U.N Security Commission is a joke when it comes to handling anything. In fact all of the U.N is one giant joke. The administrations are almost completely incapable when it comes to taking action when any of these violations happen. It’s pathetic and it occurs everyday. We blow it up in the news for maybe a day, or a week at most, and then no one does anything, or a little ol’ slap on the wrist happens.

So the lives of all these people around the world don’t seem to matter. Not even in the two examples, but in all of them that I listed. No one is going to seek out justice for what happens to these people. And you know what? No one ever will.

It’s a real shame.