As if the torture, endless detentions, lack of rebuilding progress and the refusal to count Iraqi casualties weren’t enough harm to perpetrate on the Iraqi people, the US military has now added a new tactic in its so-called War on Terrorism: just starve Iraqis.
Human rights investigator Jean Ziegler said they had driven people out of insurgent strongholds that were about to be attacked by cutting supplies.
Mr Ziegler, a Swiss-born sociologist, said such tactics were in breach of international law.
A US military spokesman in Baghdad denied the allegations.
A spokesman for the US military says:
“It does not do relief supplies any good if you have them going into a firefight,” he said.
As the article notes: “The Geneva Conventions forbid depriving civilians of food and water. Cutting off food supply lines and destroying food stocks is also forbidden.”
Civilized World to US Military: You have to supply those civilians especially because they’re in the middle of a firefight. What right do you think you have to arbitrarily decided who eats and drinks and who doesn’t? The DoD has spent countless millions on hiring private contractors to move these supplies. It’s their job. What part of acting humanely don’t you get?
And, here’s what I want to know: was Harriet Miers in on whether these measures were legal or not? She is, after all, still the White House counsel and if the torture violations of the Geneva Conventions were discussed in the WH, you can be damn sure these starvation tactics were as well. Someone made the decision to violate those conventions again and, this time, it wasn’t just a “few bad apples” again either. This is a systemic disregard for international law that must end.