Thursday, August 16, 2007

The flower and the butterfly.

Currently in several places in the world international tribunals are having sessions handling cases of war crimes.
Men who were in a war and went to intolerable extremes.

There are two major treaties to limit the violence in wars.
The Hague Convention and the Geneva Convention.
Most civilised countries in the world have signed these agreements and know that if they do not stick to it, they commit war crimes and are punishable.

One of the weapons that is illegal to use, according to the Geneva Convention, is napalm.
If a country uses napalm, it commits a war crime.
The persons who decide to use this weapon are war criminals.

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From the book “Cobra II: the inside story of the invasion and occupation of Iraq” written by Michael R. Gordon and General Bernard E. Trainor:

When the Marines arrived in Kuwait and unloaded the supply ships coming from Diego Garcia, they were pleasantly surprised to discover caches of Mark 77 bombs, or napalm.
Major General Jim “Tamer” Amos, the Marine air wing commander, thought it was as good as gold and shared his find with his fellow officers.

As Lieutenant General James Mattis focused on the Numaniyah bridges, he asked Amos if his warplanes could use the napalm and incinerate the enemy defences on the way to the Tigris.
“Sounds good to me”, Amos replied.

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There are persons who decide to have napalm bombs manufactured.
There are persons who manufacture napalm bombs.

There were people who decided to transport napalm bombs to Kuwait for use during the invasion and occupation of Iraq.

There were people who decided to actually use them.

All those persons know that the Convention of Geneva explicitly forbids the use of napalm bombs.
All those persons know they commit a war crime.
Making them a war criminal.


Major General Jim “Tamer” Amos



Lieutenant General James Mattis

A war tribunal would condemn all the responsible persons to long time prison terms.




The Convention of Geneva is basically an effort to stop barbarianism.

In the conscience of a barbarian there has never been an awareness and understanding of a butterfly visiting a flower.
How they are both totally different but managing to have a peaceful, harmonious and fruitful co-existence.


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To become knowledgeable about the invasion and occupation of Iraq, read the fascinating and perplexing book:

"COBRA II. The inside story of the invasion and occupation of Iraq" by Michael R. Gordon and General Bernard E. Trainor.
ISBN 978-1-4000-7539-3
http://www.amazon.com/Cobra-II-Inside-Invasion-Occupation/dp/0375422625

To learn more about the Geneva Convention, click on:
http://www.unhchr.ch/html/menu3/b/91.htm







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6 comments:

Ted said...

Hi
I can not find a reference to napalm in the Geneva Convention. You stated
"One of the weapons that is illegal to use, according to the Geneva Convention, is napalm."
Thanks
Ted

Living on Borrowed Time said...

When America's enemies stop killing Americans I'll start worrying about war crimes until then "Napalm the hell out of the them".

Anonymous said...

Michel Szulc Krzyzanowski is right. The Geneva Convention, signed by the USA as well, declares napalm illegal.
Check:
8. Protocol Additional to the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949, and Relating to the Protection of Victims of International Armed Conflicts (Protocol I of 1977) prohibits employment of “weapons, projectiles and material and methods of warfare of a nature to cause superfluous injury or unnecessary suffering” (Article 35, paragraph 2), as well as employment of “methods or means of warfare which are intended, or may be expected, to cause widespread, long-term and severe damage to the natural environment” (Article 35, paragraph 3; also: Article 55). The use of DU weapons also violates provisions of the same Protocol, regarding the protection of civilian population against effects of hostilities (Article 48; Article 51, paragraphs: 1, 4-c, 5-b; Article 57, paragraph 2-a-ii).

Anonymous said...

Napalm is not the only illegal weapon the US has been using in Iraq. Also cluster bombs and uranium depleted bombs.
There are a lot of war criminals among the US military and politicians.

Anonymous said...

Why does everyone believe what the US gov't says about the events of 911? I think people should investigate the entire episode. Watch "Loose Change" on Google and learn about all the facts left out of the 911 Commission report and see if you come to another conclusion about why we went to war in Afghanistan and Iraq. How can anyone say, Napalm the hell out of them? Usually it is not the enemy that gets napalmed, it is the innocent citizens and the enemy gets away.

Ted said...

Please
Remember 9/11

“weapons, projectiles and material and methods of warfare of a nature to cause superfluous injury or unnecessary suffering”

So who are the criminals?