speaking of war crimes, can anyone explain to me why the Australian media has completley ignored the fact the the US army has ADMITTED using the horrendous chemical weapon white phospherous in the battle for Fallujah?

http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=2853

Carl,

White phosphorous is a smoke round, it is used to cover troop movements, and it is not a chemical weapon, and every army in the world uses it entirely legally.

The author of this piece makes no attempt to address the onus and balance of proof pertaining to the prosecution of war crimes, which renders the entire argument specious and entirely fallacious.

The author, and others including Kofi Annan, have bleated on and on about supposed war crimes carried out by the IDF, without making any attempt to establish that a case could exist, completely abrogating the presumption of innocence to the extent that if an individual was identified, as being responsible for these 'war crimes' their publications would be defamatory.

Quite simply, the reason why it is impossible to state that any member of the IDF has committed war crimes is because the UN has made no attempt to collect the evidence necessary to prove these crimes, to beyond a reasonable doubt. All war crimes require 'intent', insofar as there are no unintentional 'war crimes', they are all closer to 'murder' than 'manslaughter'.

Thus it would have to be proved, by the UN, not that no weapons existed in the area, but that the person accused had no reason to believe that they did, or that that person had no reasonable grounds upon which to believe that their actions were likely to result in a significant military advantage, proportionate to any foreseeable harm to civilians. As civilians were warned to leave, the individual members of the IDF had every reason to believe that they had left, and that any and every suspected launch site could be hit with impunity.

Therefore, intent would be utterly impossible to prove, and no member of the IDF could be succesfully prosecuted for any such crime, unless they did so intentionally, in which case they should be prosecuted.

Dont like it, stiff sh*t, criminal law makes it almost impossible to prove intent in these situations for a very good reason.

Inshallah

2bob

2bob,

read the article that I posted, a pentagon spokesman admits that “It was used as an incendiary weapon against enemy combatants,” not just for covering troop movements, this is illegal, and it is also terribly hypocritical because we invaded Iraq on the premise that Iraq posessed weapons such as these.

Pretty strange to be talking about war 'crimes' when the unbridled terrorism of Hezbollah is involved.

It's all well and good to whine about breaches of international law, but laws are only as good as the body which is meant to enforce them.. the UN.

2bob

I think intent is proved in the case of the war crime being committed in the West bank and East Jeresulem. You know those illegal land grabbing settlements.

As for that bombing in Qana...your defense of the IDF fell apart when they admitted they knew Hezbollah had moved out of Qana two days before their murderous attack. As for the individuals involved. Well mate they are hiding among all Israeli's so I reckon the are cowards. And with the likes of you defending them I reckon they are likely to carry out similar cowardly and criminal attacks whenever they feel like it. That would make you complicit. You'd have greater success in the court of world opinion if you gave them up or became involved in and completed a successful prosecution against the individuals involved. Just like the Yanks did and are doing in Iraq. Or you could launch a prosecution against their 'line of command', unlike the Yanks in Iraq. Mate that would prove you are fair dinkum in being critical of any war crimes.

Mate that's common decency as exhibited in a liberal democratic country.

And mate, you keep repeating the line that the civilians were asked to leave areas before the IDF attacked. Well I just wonder if a case could be made, if the illegal occupation continues, using those leaflets as part of the proof that the IDF intended to clear Southern Lebanon of Lebanese so as to import Israeli settlements. Time will tell. Eh? Now that would be just another in a series of war crimes.

Nice language...but that tends to be a common and revealing trait among losers.