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<font size=3><br>
</font><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=4><b>February 9,
2006<br><br>
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</font><h1><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=5 color="#990000"><b>
War Crimes and
Commanders-in-Chief</b></font></h1><font size=3><b>
<a href="http://www.counterpunch.org/lindorff02092006.html" eudora="autourl">
http://www.counterpunch.org/lindorff02092006.html<br><br>
</a></font><h1><font size=5><b>George Bush and Tomoyuki
Yamashita</b></font></h1><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=5><b>By
DAVE LINDORFF<br><br>
</font><font face="verdana" size=6 color="#990000">I</font><font size=3>
</font><font face="verdana" size=2>t's pretty easy to trace the war crime
of torture in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay back to the Oval
Office. The memos are all there.<br><br>
But George Bush is guilty of worse war crimes than torture, bad as
torture may be. He is also guilty of violating another Geneva Convention
involving the protection of non-combatants.<br><br>
The U.S. military has violated a number of basic international rules of
war in Iraq and Afghanistan, not even counting the biggest one--starting
an unprovoked war of aggression.<br><br>
For starters, there was the much-touted "Shock&Awe"
campaign of aerial bombardment of Baghdad, which targeted markets,
targeted sites located in residential districts, and which used weapons
in an urban setting--depleted uranium shells, anti-personnel bombs,
incendiary bombs, etc.--which were guaranteed to kill many civilians, and
which in many cases are banned, or banned in such situations.<br><br>
In Fallujah, we had another war crime--an act of massive retribution
against a civilian population for an action by enemy fighters. Recall
that it was allegedly enemy fighters in Fallujah who killed and then
mutilated the bodies of four mercenary soldiers working for the
Americans. It was that incident that led Washington to decide on crushing
Fallujah as punishment. A first attempt to invade the city failed and was
called off as casualties mounted to what the White House considered
politically unacceptable levels. A new bigger attack was planned, with
the aim of leveling the city of 300,000, but it was held off until after
the 2004 election for fear high US casualties might hurt Bush's chances.
The invasion of Fallujah was clearly a political act, with heavy
involvement by the White House.<br><br>
Retribution against civilian populations for the actions of enemy
fighters is expressly forbidden and is a serious war crime under the
Geneva Conventions.<br><br>
After US troops had Fallujah surrounded, refugees were still streaming
out of the city. The New York Times' Dexter Filkins reported that US
troops were turning back into the city all males "of combat
age," which the US in Iraq has been interpreting generally to mean
over 12. All those sent back into the deathtrap of Fallujah were subject
to bombardment by napalm, depleted uranium shells, phosphorus bombs (a
weapon that is illegal if used against people, but which the military
admits was so used in Fallujah). Under the geneva Conventions, civilians
must be allowed to flee the scene of a battle.<br><br>
But why would all these war crimes make George Bush a war criminal? He
wasn't making the orders was he?<br><br>
Well, ask Gen. Tomoyuki Yamashita-a man who died the same month Bush was
born, in a February 60 years ago. Actually you can't ask the general, who
commanded Japanese forces in the Phillippines and later all across the
Pacific, because he's dead. He was executed after the war by America
following a military tribunal that accused and tried him for allegedly
being responsibile for the war crimes committed by his troops.<br><br>
Evidence linking Gen. Yamashita directly to those many crimes was lacking
at the trial, but the decision was that by not maintaining control over
his soldiers, and not stopping them from committing war crimes, Yamashita
was responsible for those crimes himself, and deserved to die.<br><br>
Ordinarily, one might say that a president is not that involved in
running the military, and that the responsibility for soldiers' behavior
should rest with the top generals, or maybe the Secretary of Defense. But
this president insists at every opportunity that he is not a president,
but rather a commander-in-chief. It's his justification for breaking the
Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, for saying he will authorize
torture if he feels like it, for refusing to provide information to
Congress, for eliminating habeas corpus, for ruling that captured
fighters in Afghanistan and elsewhere aren't POWs. The list goes on and
on.<br><br>
Basically, Bush, in his own view, is a Commander-in-Chief first, and a
President second.<br><br>
Fine, if that's how he wants it, he should have to take the good with the
bad. How was it with Spiderman? "With great power comes great
responsibility."<br><br>
That includes responsibility for the crimes being committed by the U.S.
military under his command.<br><br>
If it was right for Gen. Yamashita to be executed for his soldiers'
misdeeds, it is certainly right for Commander-in-Chief Bush to be
impeached for the misdeeds of soldiers under him--and then to be charged
as a war criminal himself.<br><br>
Dave Lindorff</b> is the author of
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1567512283/counterpunchmaga">
Killing Time: an Investigation into the Death Row Case of Mumia
Abu-Jamal</a>.</font><font face="verdana" size=3>
</font><font face="verdana" size=2>His new book of CounterPunch columns
titled
"<a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1567512984/counterpunchmaga">
This Can't be Happening!</a>" is published by Common Courage Press.
Information about both books and other work by Lindorff can be found at
<a href="http://www.thiscantbehappening.net/">
www.thiscantbehappening.net</a>.<br><br>
He can be reached at:
<a href="mailto:dlindorff@yahoo.com">dlindorff@yahoo.com</a><br><br>
<br>
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