War is so bestial and so horrific, and so damaging it is a wonder to me that nations would consider war as an option to solve differences between nation states. I also thought WWII taught mankind a war crimes lesson. Humanity has been taught that the horrific war crimes committed by nations when they are at war will be prosecuted as they were at Nuremberg and in modern times by the ICC (The International Criminal Court -- The Hague.)
We know crimes committed by the German state in WWII rose to the level of war crimes much like Justice Stewart defined pornography as "I know it when I see it" to determine what is profanity. War crimes, similarly, committed by nations at war are so horrific, so serious, so obvious and so beyond the definition of civilized humanity that, indeed, it too falls under the conclusion like pornography--I know a war crime when I see it. Still, those nations prosecuted by the Hague give civilized man a yardstick to measure atrocities when they are committed by persons engaged in war and give humanity a place to prosecute those crimes in the International Criminal Court. "The International Criminal Court the (ICC) investigates and, where warranted, tries individuals charged with the
gravest crimes of concern to the international community those of: genocide, war
crimes, crimes against humanity and the crime of aggression." Do we know a war crime when we see it? Yes, but to extract from that the ability to try, convict and punish those who have committed war crimes is, especially in the instant case of Russia's reprehensible crimes against humanity against the sovereign nation Ukraine we need a definitional format of just what the war crime(s) is (are). We are helped by the media with their voluminous reporting and photographing the many atrocities committed by Russia commanded by and at the direction of Vladimir Putin against the innocent civilian population of Ukraine.
The media and photography give the mind's eye truth to asking the court to press charges against Russia for war crimes. "Western and Ukrainian leaders have accused Russia of war crimes before,
and the International Criminal Court’s prosecutor has opened a probe to
investigate the conflict." "But the latest reports ratcheted up the
condemnation even further, with Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy
and some Western leaders going so far as to accuse Russia of genocide." I concur with this request. Yes, I know war crimes when I see them. The Maripol bombing in general but in particular of a hospital by Russians and a pregnant woman succumbing to the attacks is yet another example of a war crime. Hundreds maybe thousands of civilians have been raped. "Russian soldiers have raped girls as young as ten and branded women’s bodies with swastikas," a Ukrainian MP has claimed. Lesia Vasylenko said children had been left with wounds from serious sexual assault, adding: “Russian men did this.” It comes as
Russian troops are accused of massacring, torturing and raping hundreds
of civilians on the outskirts of the capital Kyiv in Bucha and in Irpin.
To my mind war is so lethal, so barbaric, and so inhuman that war itself should be labeled a war crime. Man's inhumanity to man I was always told is a permanent condition of mankind. If one looks at the concentration camps of WWII, and looks at Ukraine now there can be no doubt that war itself is a war crime. 50 million people died in WWII. Yes, I said 50 million. What kind of mental contortions have to be constructed to allow man the ability to do that to the innocent of other men. As I see it, those NATO nations should act to defend Ukraine and give them all the weapons they need to defend against the Russian beast despite Ukraine not being a member of NATO. The crime of war should bring with it a potential for the redress of grievances. Justice, justice, justice I cry so that the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice the oft quoted line speaks. I wake up, take a shower, then think on the crime of war and ask where can the Ukrainian go to find justice and how long will it take? It will take as the song said to the twelfth of never and that is a long long time.
In the meantime give those Ukrainians what they need to fight Putin's plague and watch as this time justice may bend toward justice even within the crime of war!
