{"id":72910,"date":"2016-05-02T12:00:42","date_gmt":"2016-05-02T11:00:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=72910"},"modified":"2016-05-02T12:51:01","modified_gmt":"2016-05-02T11:51:01","slug":"the-joke-of-u-s-justice-and-accountability-when-they-bomb-a-hospital","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2016\/05\/the-joke-of-u-s-justice-and-accountability-when-they-bomb-a-hospital\/","title":{"rendered":"The Joke of U.S. Justice and \u201cAccountability\u201d When They Bomb a Hospital"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"glenn<\/a>29 Apr 2016 – <\/em>Ever since the U.S. last October bombed a hospital run by Doctors Without Borders (MSF) in Kunduz, Afghanistan, the U.S. vehemently denied guilt while acting exactly like a guilty party would. First, it changed its story repeatedly<\/a>. Then, it blocked every effort<\/a> \u2013 including repeated demands from MSF \u2013 to have an\u00a0independent<\/em> investigation determine what really happened. As May Jeong documented in a richly reported story<\/a> for The Intercept <\/em>yesterday, the Afghan government \u2013 rather than denying that the hospital was targeted \u2013 instead repeatedly claimed\u00a0that doing so was\u00a0justified; moreover, they were sympathetic to\u00a0calls for an independent investigation, which the U.S. blocked. What is beyond dispute, as Jeong wrote, is that\u00a0the \u201c211 shells that were fired . . .\u00a0were felt by the 42 men, women, and children who were killed.\u201d MSF insisted<\/a> the bombing was \u201cdeliberate,\u201d and ample evidence supports<\/a> that charge.<\/p>\n

Despite all this, the U.S. military is about to release a report that, so predictably, exonerates itself from all guilt; it was, of course, all just a terribly tragic mistake. Worse, reports The Los Angeles Times<\/em>\u2018 W.J. Hennigan<\/a>, \u201cno one will face criminal charges.\u201d Instead, this is the \u201cjustice\u201d being meted out to those responsible:<\/p>\n

One officer was suspended from command and ordered out of Afghanistan. The others were given lesser punishments: Six were sent to counseling, seven were issued letters of reprimand, and two were ordered to retraining courses.<\/em><\/p>\n

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Photo: Fabrice Coffrini\/AFP\/Getty Images<\/p><\/div>\n

MSF continues to insist that the attack was a \u201cwar crime\u201d and must be investigated by an independent tribunal under the Geneva Conventions. In a statement this week<\/a>, Amnesty International said that it has \u201cserious concerns about the Department of Defense\u2019s questionable track record of policing itself.\u201d The\u00a0LA Times<\/em> story notes that Physicians for Human Rights said in a letter to the White House that \u201cthe gravity of harm caused by the reported failures to follow protocol in Kunduz appears to constitute gross negligence that warrants active pursuit of criminal liability.\u201d<\/p>\n

But none of that matters. The only law to which the U.S. government is subject is its own interests. U.S. officials scoffed at global demands for a real investigation into what took place here, and then doled out \u201cpunishments\u201d of counseling, training classes, and letters of reprimand for those responsible for this carnage. That\u2019s almost a worse insult, a more extreme expression of self-exoneration and indifference, than no sanctions at all. But that\u2019s par for the course in a country that has granted full-scale legal immunity for those who perpetrated the most egregious crimes: from the systemic fraud that caused the 2008 financial crisis<\/a> to the worldwide regime of torture<\/a> the U.S. government officially implemented.<\/p>\n

Yesterday in Syria, an MSF-run hospital was targeted with an airstrike<\/a>, almost certainly deliberately, by what was very likely the Syrian government or the Russians, killing at least 50\u00a0patients and doctors, including one of the last pediatricians in Aleppo. On behalf of the U.S. government, Secretary of State John Kerry pronounced<\/a>: \u201cWe are outraged by yesterday\u2019s airstrikes in Aleppo on the al Quds hospital supported by both Doctors Without Borders and the International Committee of the Red Cross, which killed dozens of people, including children, patients and medical personnel.\u201d On the list of those\u00a0with even minimal credibility to denounce that horrific airstrike, Kerry and his fellow American officials do not appear.<\/p>\n

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