Earlier quoted context omitted.
>Drone strikes of innocents They knew the target was innocent civilians?
They think children are legitimate targets?
Are you saying the US targeted children with drones?
Guantánamo survivor on the war on terror’s failure
121–130 of 356 posts
Re: Guantánamo survivor on the war on terror’s failure
#122Earlier quoted context omitted.
Hague (NL) Invasion Act : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Service-Members%27_Pr...
Given that this thread is driven by the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan, I think it's important to remember that the invasion of Afghanistan was a NATO operation after NATO invoked Article 5 (Collective Defence) in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks that Al-Quaeda launched, organized by their leadership based in Afghanistan under the protection of the Taliban. There are a few additional facts folks forget since this i…
Unfortunately Western Governments would rather cosy up to Saudi Arabia and such like who actually seem to have been one of the primary sponsors of 9/11
Re: Guantánamo survivor on the war on terror’s failure
#123Earlier quoted context omitted.
Since you are bringing up NATO, I will just spell out the Hague Invasion Act ELI5 : US Congress signed into law the a priori consent of invading the capitol of one of its NATO allies ( NL ). Disclaimer : I am Dutch.
Perhaps the first line of defense against such an invasion would be to agitate the farmers, causing them to drive all their tractors back into town. It's pretty difficult to get anything done with them ruining all transportation.
You'll certainly slow down the calvary units with tactics like those.
Re: Guantánamo survivor on the war on terror’s failure
#124Among the key figures in the design of American torture programs during the War on Terror were American psychologists James Elmer Mitchell ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Elmer_Mitchell ) and Bruce Jessen ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bruce_Jessen ), who were paid $81m for their work. Irony upon ironies: "Mitchell, who is retired and lives in Land o' Lakes, Florida, spends his free time kayaking, rafting and…
Major Banality of Evil vibes from him.
Re: Guantánamo survivor on the war on terror’s failure
#125Earlier quoted context omitted.
> The concept of an international criminal court itself is an affront to national sovereignty, and isn’t very widely supported. It is supported (i.e. signed and ratified) by all industrialized countries except the US. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/States_parties_to_the_Rome_Sta...
This is just demonstrably untrue. Most Asian countries are either non-signatories, or have withdrawn. China, Russia, Israel, KSA, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Philippines, Qatar, Turkey… are all post-industrial nations. Also, of the fully ratified signatories, it’s only supported when politically convenient. No member of NATO is going to allow for their citizens to be prosecuted by some extraterritorial court that…
> It’s also why there’s so much popular anti-ICC sentiment in Africa, because a lot of people there think it only exists to prosecute Africans (which isn’t a very easy accusation to rebut)
It is, there have been plenty of Serbs that have been convicted.
Re: Guantánamo survivor on the war on terror’s failure
#126Earlier quoted context omitted.
Hague (NL) Invasion Act : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Service-Members%27_Pr...
Given that this thread is driven by the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan, I think it's important to remember that the invasion of Afghanistan was a NATO operation after NATO invoked Article 5 (Collective Defence) in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks that Al-Quaeda launched, organized by their leadership based in Afghanistan under the protection of the Taliban. There are a few additional facts folks forget since this i…
> IMO, "nation building" is always an impossible mission. The objective should have been to attack, destroy the enemy, and leave - immediately.
They should never do anything that makes the lives of ordinary Afghans worse who suffered more from the Taliban than the US. You can’t just bomb a country, create a power vacuum, and nope out of there. Moral cowardice in the extreme.
As a counter example see Japan and Iraq.
Re: Guantánamo survivor on the war on terror’s failure
#127You also shouldn't forget to hold the other powers to account that made it impossible to have peace in Afghanistan. Russia put out bounties on US soldiers, Iran armed the Taliban, Pakistan sheltered them and I'm sure China had their fingers in there just as well. The Taliban have never been the legitimate, much less the benevolent government of the Afghan people. If you've seen "The Handmaid's Tale" you have a genera…
Our allies in the Gulf States are also responsible too
> Several Afghan and US officials have long accused several regional governments including Pakistan, Iran and Russia of giving financial aid to the Afghan Taliban, a practice they frequently deny. > Private citizens from Pakistan and several Gulf countries including Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar are considered the largest individual contributors. > Although impossible to measure, these sources of funding clearly provide a significant proportion of the Taliban's revenue, and according to experts and officials could be as much as $500m a year. > These links are long-standing. A classified CIA report estimated in 2008 that the Taliban had received $106m, from foreign sources, in particular from the Gulf states.
Re: Guantánamo survivor on the war on terror’s failure
#128You also shouldn't forget to hold the other powers to account that made it impossible to have peace in Afghanistan. Russia put out bounties on US soldiers, Iran armed the Taliban, Pakistan sheltered them and I'm sure China had their fingers in there just as well. The Taliban have never been the legitimate, much less the benevolent government of the Afghan people. If you've seen "The Handmaid's Tale" you have a genera…
Russia bounty on US soldiers story was probably fake, medias were quiet when it was revealed.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.politico.com/amp/news/2021/...
Re: Guantánamo survivor on the war on terror’s failure
#129Murat Kurnaz was also held and tortured for four more years at Guantanamo, even after it was clear that he was innocent. The person responsible(²), Frank-Walter Steinmeier, is now Germany's president. There is a repeating pattern here: Governments, officials and people in power are not held accountable. -- (²) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank-Walter_Steinmeier#Murat_...
I'm not sure I'd hold him responsible. He isn't the one that ordered the torture, and we don't know what he was told ( did he know the guy was getting tortured? did he know he wasn't any threat?)
That's part of the point of the system: it makes blame hard to assign.
Re: Guantánamo survivor on the war on terror’s failure
#130Murat Kurnaz was also held and tortured for four more years at Guantanamo, even after it was clear that he was innocent. The person responsible(²), Frank-Walter Steinmeier, is now Germany's president. There is a repeating pattern here: Governments, officials and people in power are not held accountable. -- (²) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank-Walter_Steinmeier#Murat_...
I'm not sure I'd hold him responsible. He isn't the one that ordered the torture, and we don't know what he was told ( did he know the guy was getting tortured? did he know he wasn't any threat?)
As much as I dislike Steinmeier, I agree. We also don't know how much pressure was exerted on him.