Sunday, August 10, 2008
The declining interest in war crimes
Right on schedule, Human Rights Watch is (to its credit) asking that the combatants in the Russo-Georgian war respect human rights and avoid killing civilians. Good for them, and fat chance.
Remember the global howls of outrage over Israel's antiseptic war in Lebanon two years ago? It was waging war against irregular Hezbollah fighters who did not wear uniforms, used Lebanese civilians as camouflage, and aimed with intent at Israeli civilians, and the world's press erupted at every errant Israeli bomb or shell. The accusations of HRW and other NGOs against Israel came quickly in press releases and lengthy reports, and were prominently featured in newspapers around the world.
We trust the world's great journalists are working feverishly on similar stories about Russian attacks on civilians, and that they will appear on front pages and television screens around the world any day now.
2 Comments:
By 
, at
Mon Aug 11, 12:34:00 AM:
Get real! The NYT and other US media commies have checked their Marxist altars and found that Russians are still to be worshiped. Well, OK, some have simply been well paid to publish pro-Russian material, but the result is still the same.
By , at
Mon Aug 11, 06:11:00 PM:
We trust the world's great journalists are working feverishly on similar stories about Georgian attacks on civilians, and that they will appear on front pages and television screens around the world any day now.
Georgia is generally pro-American; therefore, it is permitted (indeed encouraged) to focus carefully on any Georgian attacks against civilians (deliberate or accidental), environmental damage, inappropriate patriotism, etc.
(It really is eerie how that works. Conflicts where one party is pro-American, that party gets slimed thoroughly - when deserved and when undeserved. Atrocities and civilian attacks by the other party, or in conflicts where neither party is pro-American by and large are ignored. )
