Tag: Civilians

Onto Yemen

Yemen has been a thorn in the US presidents since GW and the US has taken upon itself to help bomb this nation back into the stone age…..GW did it, as well as Obama, Trump (first term), Biden and now looks like Donny wants to add to his bloodlust even further.

In July of 2026 Donny made it clear….

President Trump on Tuesday suggested he could restart a bombing campaign in Yemen in response to the Houthis, officially known as Ansar Allah, enforcing a blockade on the Red Sea.

Trump’s comments came after Ansar Allah announced a maritime blockade on Saudi Arabia, which came a week after the Saudis bombed Yemen’s Sanaa airport to prevent the landing of a plane carrying a Yemeni delegation from Iran to enforce its long-standing blockade on the country that was eased under a 2022 ceasefire deal but never fully lifted.

his part, Trump downplayed the blockade, claiming it hasn’t started yet. “So far, it hasn’t happened, might happen, but we take care of things,” Trump told reporters while meeting with Lebanese President Joseph Aoun in the Oval Office.

“If something like that happens, we take care of it. You know, we’ve done that with the Houthis before, and we haven’t heard from them in a while since we did what we did originally,” he added.

Trump launched a bombing campaign in Yemen on March 15, 2025, a few days after Ansar Allah announced it was renewing its blockade of Israeli-linked shipping in the Red Sea in response to Israel violating the January 2025 Gaza ceasefire deal by imposing a full blockade on the Palestinian territory.

The US bombing campaign lasted about a month and a half and involved major civilian casualties, including the bombing of the Ras Issa Fuel Port in Hodeidah, which killed 84 people, all civilians, according to the monitoring group Airwars. A few days after the strike, the US bombed a migrant detention facility in Saada, killing 68 African migrants.

(antiwar.com)

I rehash this because he has started yet another use of US military force…..

he Pentagon has quietly tallied a deadly civilian cost for a short, intense US campaign in Yemen. A new Defense Department review says three American strikes in April 2025 killed 153 civilians and wounded nearly 250 others, the Trump administration’s first public acknowledgment of large-scale noncombatant casualties since returning to office, reports the Washington Post. Two of the incidents—an April 17 strike on Ras Isa Port that killed 80 people and injured 171, and an April 28 attack that killed 68 people in Yemen’s northwest, including migrants held in a detention site—are among the deadliest US strikes since 2001, rights advocates say.

The 50-day operation, launched after Houthi attacks on Red Sea shipping, followed Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s move to dismantle a Pentagon office devoted to reducing civilian harm. The review, required by Congress and not yet released publicly, comes as the AP reports that concerns are rising “over civilian casualties during military campaigns.” The report says none of the three Yemen cases warranted condolence payments, a conclusion some experts call premature. Fifteen other Yemen incidents remain under review, even as the number of civilian-harm investigators has been cut by more than 90%. Human rights groups have labeled the Yemen attacks possible war crimes and also question the Pentagon’s assertion that US operations against drug traffickers in the Western Hemisphere have produced no civilian casualties.

The US does not care about civilian deaths as long as they can flex that anemic muscle they call ‘force’…..

It is time for the lazy pricks in Congress to step forward and do something, anything no matter what as long as they try to stop the civilian deaths.

This is getting out of hand…..DO SOMETHING!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

No Free Ride

As the war in Gaza and Israel heats up Americans have been advised by the State Department to leave the country for their own safety. It was the same with Ukraine and Sudan and Niger and etc etc etc…..

That is the State Department and the embassy doing their job keeping American citizens as safe as possible.

But is it a service or a business?

When American citizens find themselves caught in a foreign country amid a war or natural disaster, the U.S. government sometimes swoops in and rescues them from harm’s way — but it isn’t free. Before they can board the ship or plane, the people being rescued must sign a document promising to repay the U.S. Department of State for the expenses accrued in the process.

“I clearly understand that I am accepting evacuation of my own free will and at my own risk to a location chosen by the U.S. Government,” the U.S. Department of State form begins. Later, it says, “I promise to repay the U.S. Government in U.S. dollars or the foreign currency equivalent, within 30 days of initial billing, and if not repaid within 60 days of initial billing at an interest rate established in accordance with Federal law, for all applicable expenses for my/our evacuation.” While it might seem a little harsh — people are being forced to sign a promissory note while fleeing a potentially deadly situation — it’s been the law of the land since 1956.

Even before requiring evacuees to repay the government became a law, it appears that it was standard practice, even during World War II, per the Austin-American Statesman. The American government bases the reimbursement cost on what the evacuee would pay for a “full fare economy flight, or comparable alternate transportation” to the destination of the government’s choosing, which is rarely the U.S., according to the U.S. Department of State website.

The protocol is to send evacuees to the nearest safe neighboring country, or even a safer part of the country they’re fleeing. When an evacuee arrives at their destination, they’ll have to pay for their accommodations and any connecting flights. Evacuees may be able to get an emergency loan. “For U.S. citizens who need emergency financial assistance at the evacuation destination, you may ask a consular officer to help you apply for a loan to help with the costs of your accommodations and/or other essential expenses,” the U.S. State Department reads. But again, it’s a loan that will need to be paid back.

If a U.S. citizen can’t afford to pay off the promissory note, the Department of State “at its discretion” may give the evacuee the option for an installment plan, per the U.S. Department of State form. If the evacuee still doesn’t repay the fee, the government can prevent that person and their family members from getting a U.S. passport. In some cases, the Department of State has waived reimbursements during evacuations. In 1990, the U.S. government picked up the tab for citizens fleeing Iraq and Kuwait during the Gulf War. Similarly, in 2006, the government didn’t require evacuees from Lebanon to pay back travel costs.

“In an emergency, when people are in danger, your life is at risk, it’s not the time to be forcing people to sign away their life’s savings,” Richard Goldberg, senior advisor at the nonpartisan think tank Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told The National Desk. “It’s the time to be getting people out of harm’s way.” Members of Congress have attempted to amend the law over the years — but without success.

(grunge.com)

Let me see if I get this right…..the US has cash to pay foreign governments budgetary crises and to pay their officials but not for t6he protection of American lives….is that about it?

Seriously?

Our priorities are getting damn right obscene.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Those Civilian Deaths

There is a growing problem in our many many wars and conflicts…..civilian deaths.

Our ever expanding use of drones to attack ‘enemy’ positions the number of civilian deaths has risen…..for every single ‘bad guy’ taken out by a drone strike there is the chance that innocent civilians will be killed as well.

With every report that gets out about these deaths the US pledges to investigate the deaths…..this is to placate critics and in the end nothing is actually accomplished and the killers go unpunished.

The question needs to be asked if the US Pentagon be a good and good faith investigator?

Some of us say no…..

U.S. Central Command reported late on Friday a U.S. drone strike in Idlib, Syria against a senior member of al-Qaida, rather than against a member of the self-described Islamic State  — the ostensible legal justification the United States is even in Syria. Even more interestingly, CENTCOM claimed it “immediately self-reported” one civilian casualty that it is investigating. 

But U.S. policymakers should not defer to the military’s investigatory promises given its history of covering up or not sufficiently accounting for civilian casualties. In fact, the Associated Press has since reported that the strike wounded a family of 6, including a 10-year-old child.

It’s no coincidence the CENTCOM appears to have proactively taken responsibility for this latest civilian casualty. This incident came at the end of a week of rightful public uproar after the New York Times revealed the U.S. military’s apparent cover up of an airstrike killing 80 civilians in eastern Syria in 2019. Rather than allowing more exhaustive investigative journalism to uncover its destructive and deadly actions in Syria, it appears CENTCOM is hoping that announcing an investigation will stave off an intense media frenzy like the one following its botched August 29  drone strike in Kabul during the withdrawal from Afghanistan that killed Zemari Ahmadi, a civilian electrical engineer, and his family. 

We can’t trust the US military to investigate civilian casualties

As I was writing this draft more news has popped up……

The Pentagon won’t discipline any US personnel involved in the mistaken drone strike that killed 10 civilians in Afghanistan in August. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin accepted recommendations on the issue that did not include punishment, press secretary John Kirby said Monday. The recommendations from two commanders were mostly procedural, the Hill reports, and Kirby said, “There was no overt recommendation made by either specific to accountability and any punishment for anyone.” An independent Pentagon review had come to a similar conclusion, saying there was no evidence of negligence. Seven of the 10 people killed were children.

The aid organization that one of the victims worked for immediately criticized the decision, per CNBC. Nutrition & Education International said the US hasn’t kept its promises to provide compensation to the victims’ families and get them out of the country. “How can our military wrongly take the lives of 10 precious Afghan people, and hold no one accountable in any way?” asked the group’s president, Dr. Steven Kwon. Zemerai Ahmadi, who was killed along with his family, worked for the organization for 15 years. US commanders mistakenly thought he was an ISIS-K operative when they ordered the strike in Kabul.

“What we saw here was a breakdown in process and execution in procedural events,” Kirby said Monday, “not the result of negligence, not the result of misconduct, not the result of poor leadership.” Austin previously had called the drone attack a “horrible mistake,” though the Defense Department at first called it a “righteous strike.” US operations have killed hundreds of civilians, at least, in war zones over the past 20 years, rarely holding an individual responsible, per the Hill.

Seriously?  Just how accurate and fair is the perp given control of a death investigation?

American exceptionalism is a self-forged permission slip to engage in the kind of malicious behavior that the US would condemn from any other nation.

No one cares about the deaths of civilians…..as long as we have our Gummi vitamins and social influencers then all is well with the world.

Turn The Page!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Afghanistan–What The Hell?

Our longest ever war has had a couple of bad days in the last week…….it seems that we have nset about killing a bunch of civilians on two occasions in less than 5 days….

First on 19 Sept……..

US forces carried out their latest disastrous air strike in Afghanistan. A US drone attacked and killed at least 30 civilians, and wounded 40 others in eastern Afghanistan’s Nangarhar Province.

The victims of the attack were farm workers who were participating in the harvest of pine nuts in a village’s forest, and a number of children who were also there to take part in the harvest.

What adds insult to injury, however, was that the village elders had foreseen this as an issue, and specifically sent letters around to officials two weeks ago. The letters, dated September 7, were meant to assure that the gathering on the outskirts of the forest was nothing to do with militants, and was merely hired laborers for the harvest. They were assured this was not a problem.

So about 200 workers gathered around a camp on the edge of the forest, lit bonfires, and talked about the security situation at their respective villages of origin. Then the US drone arrived and started attacking the camp, sending survivors fleeing into the forest.

US officials downplayed the fact that there was a letter informing everyone what this camp was. The official statement was that the existence of the letter would be considered in the investigation.

(antiwar.com)

Second attack was on 23 Sept the second attack……

For the second time in a week, a US military operation in Afghanistan has ended with a large number of civilians dead, and US officials offering very dubious arguments as to why it wasn’t their fault.

The Sunday night attack saw US and Afghan commandos raid a house in Helmand Province, and ultimately launch airstrikes. The attack killed at least 40 civilians, including a number of children.

Instead of the Taliban building they thought they were raiding, it turns out the airstrike pounded an ongoing wedding reception. The Afghan government has already admitted to what happened, saying they are “saddened” by the deaths and want to take extra caution in the future.

Because the US is on one of those kicks where they don’t take responsibility for anything, the US statement confirmed the airstrike but denied killing civilians. They claimed the attack targeted al-Qaeda, and suggested any civilians “died from al-Qaeda weapons,” and not from the US dropping bombs on them.

(antiwar.com)

I realize that collateral damage involving civilians is a common occurrence in war but this is pushing the limits of acceptability.

“Lego Ergo Scribo”

Saudis Throw A Hissy Fit

There has been report after report that the Saudis and the UAE have been ignoring civilians when ordering these attacks…….After 2 separate attacks and the deaths of 60+ children in Yemen the UN finally has issued a report on the action of the Saudis…..The report noted Saudi and UAE forces killed thousands of civilians in airstrikes, tortured detainees, raped civilians, and used child soldiers as young as eight. The two nations repeatedly hit residential areas and there is “little evidence of any attempt by parties to the conflict to minimize civilian casualties.”

After the report was issued the Saudis threw one of their fits…..

the UN confirmed in considerable detail misdeeds by the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen, killing thousands of civilians in Yemen, raping and torturing detainees, and using child soldiers. The report warned these may amount to war crimes.

While they didn’t specifically dispute any of this, Saudi Arabia was predictably furious about the report, angrily condemning it as having “misconstrued the facts of the conflict… ignoring the true reasons for the conflict,” while saying that it was an Iranian coup against the “legitimate government in Yemen.”

(antiwar.com)

Not to worry….the Saudis will be protected by the US and the UK among others…..not to worry the Saudis have many “friends” on the Security Council so their position will be protected.

Many have asked just what does the US truly get for its undying support for the Saudis?

Ever since Franklin Roosevelt’s historic rendezvous in 1945 with Abd Aziz Ibn Saud, the founder of Saudi Arabia, American presidents have been enamored with Saudi kings.

But nothing in the 70 plus-year history of U.S.-Saudi ties comes close to the cosmic groveling that now defines President Donald Trump’s relationship with Saudi Arabia and his slavish obeisance to its dangerous and irresponsible policies.

https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2018/08/29/trump-mbs-saudi-arabia-yemen-middle-east-foreign-policy-219617

Personally, I think it is time to end our undying support for the Saudis and their allies and demand a cessation of hostilities in Yemen….end the cycle of death for the people of Yemen…..

If the US were to follow the rules of warfare written into US military law and treaties to which the US is a party, the US must immediately end its support for the Saudi Arabia-led war in Yemen. We should also marshal all of its diplomatic tools to end the conflict. Since 2015, Saudi Arabia, and allies such as the United Arab Emirates, have been waging a devastating war in support of the former government of Yemen against the current Houthi regime. Amnesty International has called the conflict a “forgotten war” because its deadly consequences have failed to rise to the level of international crisis in media or government agendas. However, under former President Barack Obama and now Donald Trump, the US has been complicit in war crimes and the creation of a completely preventable humanitarian nightmare for the people of Yemen

https://original.antiwar.com/Jared_Keyel/2018/08/30/no-more-forgotten-wars-end-us-support-for-saudi-coalition-war-crimes-in-yemen/

After writing this draft the Saudis have accepted they may have screwed the pooch on these attacks…..

The Saudi-led coalition fighting rebels in Yemen admitted on Saturday that “mistakes” had been made in an August air strike that hit a bus and killed 40 children, and pledged to hold accountable anyone who contributed to the error.

The rare concession follows mounting international pressure, including from allies, to do more to limit civilian casualties in a civil war that has killed more than 10,000 people and pushed the already impoverished country to the brink of famine, Reuters said.

(antimedia.com)

Do not believe it!  My guess is the PR group told them to take credit and the story would die…if they did not the backlash would be great and a story for all times.

In closing…..the US involvement in this conflict is not guilt free…..

http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2018/08/yemen-us-blood-on-hands.html

Is Gas Worth The Price?

America’s latest attack on Syria was a result of the supposed use of Sarin gas by Assad on the local population…….the US called it a humanitarian response….a punishment for the use of the gas Sarin.

We have had all sorts of info come out about the attack…the reason, the result, the excuse……pics have been released about the gas attack results and pics about the result of the missile attack on the Syrian airfield…..but so far I have seen nothing that would be proof positive of the attack and who committed it…..

I have been researching the intel (the intel available to us mere mortals, that is) and I found some interesting articles that my readers may find informative…..

But I have found a few pieces about the gas and the intel……

A four-page white paper, prepared by President Trump’s National Security Council staff and released by the White House on Tuesday, claimed that U.S. intelligence has proof that the plane carrying the sarin gas left from the Syrian military airfield that Trump ordered hit by Tomahawk missiles on April 6.

The paper asserted that “we have signals intelligence and geospatial intelligence,” but then added that “we cannot publicly release all available intelligence on this attack due to the need to protect sources and methods.”

Source: Trump Withholds Syria-Sarin Evidence – Consortiumnews

I believe the sources were revealed….sigint and geospatial sources…..

Then there is this “white paper”…..does not really give much in the way of proof…..

I am responding to your distribution of what I understand is a White House statement claiming intelligence findings about the nerve agent attack on April 4, 2017 in Khan Shaykhun, Syria. My understanding from your note is that this White House intelligence summary was released to you sometime on April 11, 2017.

I have reviewed the document carefully, and I believe it can be shown, without doubt, that the document does not provide any evidence whatsoever that the US government has concrete knowledge that the government of Syria was the source of the chemical attack in Khan Shaykhun, Syria at roughly 6 to 7 a.m. on April 4, 2017.

Source: The Nerve Agent Attack in Khan Shaykhun, Syria – The Unz Review

As long as I am writing about a sarin attack I thought that you guys could profit from a knowledge of what a sarin bomb attack entails…..

The recent chemical attack in Khan Shaykhun in Syria is alleged by witnesses to have been delivered by an air-dropped bomb.  The purpose of this article is to systematically break down a Sarin bomb into its components and analyse what happens to them.  This first part addresses the contents of the bomb and how these components interact with the environment.

What’s in an air-dropped Sarin bomb? A Sarin bomb will contain more than just Sarin.

Source: bellingcat – Anatomy of a Sarin Bomb Explosion (Part I) – bellingcat

I will post “part 2” when it becomes available……

I hope that that this information is helpful to those that are, like me, looking for answers.

When A Good Man Goes To War

It’s official!  50+ missiles fired at a Syrian air base……

The United States has attacked a Syrian air base with roughly 60 cruise missiles in response to a chemical weapons attack it blames on President Bashar Assad. US officials say the Tomahawk missiles were fired from two warships in the Mediterranean Sea, targeting a government-controlled air base in Syria, reports the AP. The move comes after US officials accused Syrian aircraft of killing dozens of civilians by using chlorine mixed with a nerve agent, possibly sarin, earlier this week. President Trump, who had said the Syrian attack crossed “many, many lines” for him, said Thursday night that it was in the “vital national security interest” of the United States to stop the use of chemical weapons.

Syrian state TV reported a US missile attack on a number of military targets and called the attack an “aggression.” The Washington Post notes that the US attack brings with it a heightened risk of confrontation with Syria supporters Russia and Iran. Russia initially defended Assad after the civilian deaths, saying that government airstrikes had hit chemical weapons being stored illegally by rebels. But on Thursday, a Kremlin spokesman made a point to say that its support was not “unconditional.” Hundreds of US troops are currently stationed in Syria, advising local forces ahead of an assault on the city of Raqqa, an ISIS stronghold.

How did it come to this?

A couple of days ago chemical weapons were used in Northwest Syria on a civilian population…..and as usual there is no shortage of finger pointing as to the culprit of use.

The day of the attack an unusual suspect was taunted as the cause……

An apparent chemical attack that killed scores of people Tuesday is being called one of the worst atrocities of the Syrian civil war—and President Trump blames his predecessor. The “heinous” actions of the Assad regime “are a consequence of the past administration’s weakness and irresolution,” Trump said in a statement, per NBC News. “President Obama said in 2012 that he would establish a ‘red line,’ against the use of chemical weapons and then did nothing.” Syrian activists say at least 72 people, including many children, were killed in a regime airstrike on a rebel-held town in Idlib province.

Obama did it!

Before the attack our napping SecState made a statement about Assad and Sen. Rubio is claiming that statement lead to the attack…..

Republican Sen. Marco Rubio said Wednesday that he doesn’t think it’s a coincidence that a suspected chemical weapons attack in Syria occurred shortly after Secretary of State Rex Tillerson suggested Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad could remain in power.

“In this case now, we have very limited options and look, it’s concerning that the secretary of state, 72 hours ago or a week ago, last Friday, said that the future’s up to the people in Syria on what happens with Assad. In essence almost nodding to the idea that Assad was gonna get to stay in some capacity,” Rubio said on the show “AM Tampa Bay.”
“I don’t think it’s a coincidence that a few days later we see this,” Rubio concluded.
This attack has the politicos using Tillerson’s words to accuse…..now I am in no way a supporter of Tillerson but this is just silly to blame him as if Assad was waiting for “permission” to use chemical weapons.
Even our new UN ambassador, Nikki Haley, has gotten on her moral high horse……..
Scores were killed in Syria’s Idlib province on Tuesday in what the New York Times calls “the worst chemical attack in years” in the war-torn country. Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s regime is saying it had nothing to do with it, and Syrian ally Russia is also deflecting blame, claiming that an airstrike hit a “terrorist” chemical weapons workshop in Khan Sheikhoun, dispersing the poison, now widely believed to have been a nerve agent like sarin gas. But members of the Trump administration, as well as other US politicians, are now blasting Vladimir Putin for protecting Assad, with UN Ambassador Nikki Haley taking the lead at a UN Security Council gathering Wednesday, the Washington Post reports. “How many more children have to die before Russia cares?” she asked at the special session that was prompted by a request from Britain and France.
“When the U.N. consistently fails in its duty to act collectively, there are times in the life of states that we are compelled to take our own action,” Haley told the U.N. Security Council at an emergency meeting called in response to Tuesday’s suspected chemical attack in Syria’s northern province of Idlib.
Just days before the attack she echoed what Tillerson had said…….
Some are noting that just last week, Haley said removing Assad from power was no longer a US priority and that the US had to “pick and choose” its battles; Secretary of State Rex Tillerson also said last week that Assad’s fate was now up to the Syrian people, per Reuters.
America did what it always does….mounts its high moral horse…..and all the while ignoring the children in Yemen and Palestine…just another indication of the hypocrisy.
Threats abound….will Trump take this opportunity to launch a “surprise” attack on Assad?  Trump has said this attack is “beyond the red line” and “would not be tolerated”…..
Source: ‘Beyond a Red Line’: Trump Might Just Launch Surprise Attack on Syria | Common Dreams
What will be the response?  First who used the chemical weapons?  Maybe it would be a good idea to know who used these weapons before we jump head long into the fire.
The U.S. government and the mainstream media rushed to judgment again, blaming the Syrian government for a new poison-gas attack and ignoring other possibilities,
With the latest hasty judgment about Tuesday’s poison-gas deaths in a rebel-held area of northern Syria, the mainstream U.S. news media once more reveals itself to be a threat to responsible journalism and to the future of humanity. Again, we see the troubling pattern of verdict first, investigation later, even when that behavior can lead to a dangerous war escalation and many more deaths.
Before a careful evaluation of the evidence about Tuesday’s tragedy was possible, The New York Times and other major U.S. news outlets had pinned the blame for the scores of dead on the Syrian government of Bashar al-Assad. That revived demands that the U.S. and other nations establish a “no-fly zone” over Syria, which would amount to launching another “regime change” war and would put America into a likely hot war with nuclear-armed Russia.
Source: Another Dangerous Rush to Judgment in Syria – Consortiumnews
Do we need to wait for “Frat Boy” Jared to come home from his time in the spotlight so he can flip the coin for his daddy-in-law”?

Let’s Go To The Tape

The final battle against ISIS in Iraq is being fought in and around the town of Mosul……many deaths have happened thanx to this battle….but the latest deaths may be horrific as it appears the US airstrikes killed nothing more than civilians

Facing growing criticism over an attack earlier this month that killed hundreds of civilians in Mosul, the Pentagon today confirmed that it has video footage of ISIS forcing hundreds of civilians into the destroyed buildings, which they presented as “provoking the attack.”

While this is designed to shift some of the blame away from the Pentagon for bombing buildings full of civilians, it appears to actually do the exact opposite: it confirms that the Pentagon knew before the attacks that those buildings were full of civilians, and attacked them anyhow.

ISIS has long been criticized for pushing civilians around and forcing them into various areas, but the fact that civilians were being forced into buildings does not prove that the buildings were of any specific value as a target in the first place, and the Pentagon’s assertion appears to be that putting civilians in there amounted to making the buildings a more tempting target in and of itself.

The huge civilian death toll of the US strikes has been condemned by several human rights groups, unsurprisingly, but the Pentagon’s narrative has rapidly changed from denial, to sheepish admission of “probable” guilt, and now to outright defiance over the fact that they killed so many people.

(antiwar.com)

Blatantly killing civilians?  This should be enough for a review of our tactics and strategy concerning the use of airstrikes and drone attacks…..

But will it?

It’s Not Who You Know

Ever heard that expression…”It is not who you know but rather who you blow”?

I can give you a prime example of how that works…..and my example will be Saudi Arabia…..

For over a year now the Saudis have been bombing the crap out of Yemen all on the pretense of going after the Houthi, a Shia militia that they, the Saudis, claim are threatening the religious shrines in the kingdom.

During this conflict they have killed more civilians than Houthi miltiamen and the UN acted to make them pay for this disaster……

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon slammed the Saudi Arabia-led coalition fighting in Yemen for killing and maiming children by adding it to an annual blacklist of states and armed groups that violate children’s rights during conflict.

The coalition was responsible for 60 percent of child deaths and injuries last year, killing 510 and wounding 667, according to Ban’s report released on Thursday, which also said the coalition carried out half the attacks on schools and hospitals.

The Saudi-led coalition began a military campaign in Yemen in March last year with the aim of preventing Iran-allied Houthi rebels and forces loyal to Yemen’s ex-President Ali Abdullah Saleh from taking control of the country.

(Reuters)

Of course the Saudis went batcrap crazy being put on a “blacklist”……and they turn to their paid agents in America….the bureaucrats.

The UN has announced it is altering last week’s “blacklist” of violators of children’s rights to remove the Saudi-led coalition attacking Yemen, amid intense diplomatic pressure from the Saudi government to change the list.

The coalition was responsible for an estimated 60% of the children killed in Yemen last year, though Saudi officials insisted that any inclusion on the list “contradicts” previous UN resolutions which endorsed the government the Saudi war intends to prop up.

UN officials had previously resisted the Saudi demand to remove them from the list, but backed down pretty quickly when Saudi officials started making statements of outrage about being included. The UN insists the removal is simply “pending review,” citing Saudi claims of inaccurate data.

(antiwar.com)

See when all else fails…call in the favors that are owed for all the cash they spread around the M-IC….

See….it is not who you know but who you blow that saves the day.

 

Those Damn Pesky Civilians

Many of us bloggers have been ranting about the amount of civilians that are killed in our many, many wars…..how the US tries to justify or just plain deny that these casualties are actually happening.

Of course we could always write them off as “collateral damage”…..anything to get the “bad guy”, right?

I know there can be no rules in a war….well that is just not right…there are rules ans a civilized nation should abide be the set of rules in war.

Rule 1. The parties to the conflict must at all times distinguish between civilians and combatants. Attacks may only be directed against combatants. Attacks must not be directed against civilians.

But what if the nation makes up its own rules for civilians in a war zone?

Though the Pentagon has mostly issued blanket denials whenever they’re caught killing civilians in airstrikes against ISIS targets anyhow, officials say their eagerness to escalate the air war against ISIS targets has seen the implementation of new rules allow the US to kill larger numbers of civilians per attack.

The details are still scant, with the official rules likely to remain a secret, but officials say they have implemented a “sliding scale,” based on the region being targeted and the “opportunity.” In some cases, US airstrikes will be allowed to kill 10 civilians per strike.

So it comes down to a numbers game, right?

That is an original tactic…..NOT!  We played that game, the numbers game, in Vietnam….only in that case the numbers were exaggerated upwards….in this case I am sure they will be exaggerated in the opposite direction……down.

Look at the conflict in Yemen…….

…….human rights report on Saudi Arabia, the State Department ignored thousands of civilian casualties from the Saudi-led bombing campaign in Yemen and overlooked the widespread use of illegal cluster munitions by the bombing coalition.

Saudi Arabia launched an air campaign in Yemen last March after Houthi rebels in Yemen threatened the rule of the Saudi-backed president. The Saudi military has been widely criticized for targeting civilians, destroying homes, schools, and hospitals, and using internationally banned cluster munitions.

Civilian casualties are acceptable as long as it is supported by the US……sorry…I have a real problem with all this….I do not think that the destruction of an entire family to get one bad guy is good policy.