A Beginner’s Guide to War Crimes

Picasso’s depiction of the bombing of Guernica during the Spanish Civil WAr

A Beginner’s Guide to War Crimes – a brief summary of the absolute worst humanity has to offer

What constitutes a crime during warfare? As outlined by The Geneva Conventions:

https://www.icrc.org/eng/war-and-law/treaties-customary-law/geneva-conventions/overview-geneva-conventions.htm

Radical changes in power structure tend to give way to new groups who redefine existing laws to accommodate

There are 4 formal conventions of warfare defined:

1 – The first Geneva Convention protects wounded and sick soldiers on land during war.
2 – The second Geneva Convention protects wounded, sick and shipwrecked military personnel at sea during war.
3 – The third Geneva Convention applies to prisoners of war.
4 – The fourth Geneva Convention affords protection to civilians, including in occupied territory.

Examples of War Crimes — List far from incomplete, insufficient hard liquor.

– The bombing of Guernica during the Spanish Civil War, 1937
http://www.pbs.org/treasuresofthe…/…/glevel_1/1_bombing.html —
As German air chief Hermann Goering testified at his trial after World War II: “The Spanish Civil War gave me an opportunity to put my young air force to the test, and a means for my men to gain experience.” Some of these experimental tactics were tested on that bright Spring day with devastating results – the town of Guernica was entirely destroyed with a loss of life estimated at 1,650

– Attack on Pearl Harbor, 7 December 1945
Imperial Japanese Army under Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto – imperial Japanese Army convicted of War Crimes in International courthttp://militaryhistory.about.com/od/naval/p/Yamamoto.htm

– The bombings of Hirsohima and Nagasaki — 6 August and 9 August, 1945
http://www.aasc.ucla.edu/cab/200708230009.html
The real mortality of the atomic bombs that were dropped on Japan will never be known. The destruction and overwhelming chaos made orderly counting impossible. It is not unlikely that the estimates of killed and wounded in Hiroshima (150,000) and Nagasaki (75,000) are over conservative. Revenge is a mother fucker, but a war crime nonetheless.

– Massacre at My Lai (Vietnam War) – 18 March 1968
http://law2.umkc.edu/…/proje…/ftrials/mylai/summary_rpt.html

The My Lai Massacre was the mass murder of 347 to 504 unarmed citizens in South Vietnam conducted by U.S. soldiers from the Company C of the 1st Battalion, 20th Infantry Regiment, 11th Brigade of the 23rd ( Infantry Division, on 16 March 1968. On March 18, 1969, the United States began a four year long carpet-bombing campaign in the skies of Cambodia, devastating the countryside and causing socio-political upheaval that eventually led to the installation of the Pol Pot regime.

Notable War Criminals:

– Idi Amin (Rwandan military dictator)
= Robert Mugabi, (http://www.thestar.com/…/zimbabwe_suffers_silent_genocide_w…)
– Milan Babić – https://web.archive.org/…/indictm…/english/bab-ii031117e.htm
– Pol Pot (Commander of Khmer Rouge army in Cambodia, initiated Cambodian genocide. He was a very, very bad man! Lived to be 72)
http://www.cambcomm.org.uk/holocaust.php)
– Khan Noonien Sing (for using the Genesis Device – http://memory-alpha.wikia.com/wiki/Khan_Noonien_Singh — Product of eugenics wars —http://memory-alpha.wikia.com/wiki/Eugenics_Wars)

So, Why Should We Not Commit War Crimes?

IT IS VERY BAD.

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