I don't know anything about deliberate acts of cruelty by the US military, being from the military myself I am skeptical. the US military is a very professional force. We don't do that shit. Isolated cases of certain individuals going bonkers the exception, there is no institutional movement to commit war crimes. The UCMJ is pretty fucking clear and every soldier has decent knowledge of it and the UCMJ will hammer anyone committing such acts.
However, there is the problem of the Constitution. The US has not declared war on Syria. The US has been bombing Syrian positions, territory without the permission of Syria. These are acts of war. Some may claim that the POTUS has the power to do this because of the War Powers Act or the War Power Resolution, except that the US has been committing these acts of war for years and those acts only give power to do such for 60 days.
Then of course there is AUMF (Authorization for Use of Military Force) under which the current acts of war we perpetrate upon Syria on a daily basis is justified legally. The AUMF gave the POTUS the authorization to use whatever force necessary, anywhere in the world, to bring to justice those who perpetrated the 9/11 acts. This was a blank check to go after terrorists. Even though ISIS had nothing to do with 9/11 that I am aware.
The problem with this is that the AUMF has the same time restrictions as the War Resolutions Act. In fact, in section II of the Act it specifically states that the AUMF does not supersede the War Powers Act and thus, the US cannot use the AUMF to justify years upon years of acts of war against Syria.
Not to mention the problem of giving the POTUS a blank check to attack terrorists anywhere in the world without reproach. All a POTUS has to do is label anyone a "terrorist" and then use the AUMF as the legal shielding.
Every bomb dropped in Syria, every attack carried out, every sortie, every covert op are all illegal without a declaration of war from Congress on Syria at this point. Unless someone can direct me to some law or statute that gives the POTUS the power to wage war without a declaration of war from Congress for a period that spans years and even decades. Seriously, if anyone can show me any US law that can be applied here to legally justify dropping bombs on a sovereign nation then please, post it here ITT.
I know we do this shit, I know no one ever gets prosecuted for it or slapped down for ignoring the Constitution on this, but that still doesn't make it right just because no one ever says anything about it.
IMO, the sooner we wash our hands the better off we, Europe and the world will be better off. The Islamist "rebels", once without western support and logistics will be easy pickings for the Russians and the Syrian armed forces and the bloodshed can finally end.
qwert wrote: soldiers are protected from any war trials.
US soldiers aren't "protected" from war trials. The US soldiers are protected from being tried by other countries. The UCMJ will prosecute soldiers committing war crimes and does. It's just that, in general, US soldiers don't go around raping and murdering at will.
Now if you wanna say that the US politicians who enable this war to keep going should be gone after, I'm with ya on that! But the US soldier? No way, the average US soldier doesn't want to commit war crimes, has zero desire to do so. Don't blame them for the impossible situation they are put in by the US politicians.
