Drones’ murder of innocents highlights U.S. hypocrisy

As the U.S. and its allies prepare to intervene in Syria, they have seized on the massacre that took place at Houla last week to justify a war. The State Department called the rampage “despicable” and complained about a regime that could “connive in or organize” such a thing, although who was responsible is very much in dispute. Many countries, including the U.S., have expelled Syrian diplomats, which is often a prelude to war.

The implication is that outside intervention will bring an end to such things. But these same countries have either “connived in” or had little or nothing to say about proven U.S. and NATO atrocities. Here are just a (very) few examples:

• Aug. 10, 2011: The Journal for Investigative Journalism reported that since 2004, 175 children had been among at least 2,347 people reported killed in CIA drone attacks in Pakistan, a country with whom the U.S. is supposedly not even at war.
• May 5, 2009: Nearly 100 civilians, including women and children, were killed by a U.S. raid against Bala Baluk, Afghanistan.
• Aug. 22, 2008: A U.S. bombing in Azizabad, Afghanistan, killed as many civilians as are claimed to have been killed in Syria. The dead included 60 children. A draft U.N. Security Council press statement said about the bombing that member nations “strongly deplore the fact that this is not the first incident of this kind” and that “the killing and maiming of civilians is a flagrant violation of international humanitarian law.” (Counterpunch.org, May 31)
• July 4, 2008: 22 civilians were blown up when U.S. helicopters rocketed two vehicles in Afghanistan’s Nuristan Province.
• July 2008: U.S planes bombed a wedding party in Afghanistan’s Nangarhar Province, leaving 47 civilians dead, including the bride.
• June 2007: 170 civilians died in the U.S.-led bombing of Afghanistan’s Helmand Province.
• May 2007: 21 Afghan civilians were killed in Helmand Province.
• April 2007: A helicopter gunship mowed down over a dozen civilians in Iraq. The incident was caught on Pentagon film that was subsequently released to the Wikileaks organization. Pvt. Bradley Manning, charged with releasing the video, faces life imprisonment and has served more than two years in solitary confinement, while those who did the killing walk free.
• October 2004: Human Rights Watch estimated that 100,000 Iraqis had been killed just since the U.S. bombing and invasion started on March 20, 2003.
• October 2001: Security Council investigators confirmed that U.S. warplanes had destroyed a hospital in Western Afghanistan — a blatant violation of the laws of war, since hospital roofs are clearly identified.

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