SHIP OF FOOLS ON AN OCEAN OF WAR CRIMES

Inexcusable. 
They played a deadly game.
The operation was sad,sad from the beginning.
Wasted lives, from the beginning.
Old Alex, caught in the frame, target practice. Everything, in heightened alert, became a threat. 
But it was all as nothing in contrast to what others faced.
In waking dreams, the bodies still rotting under the rubble.
To the victor, the spoils. The soldiers, the manipulated soldiers, danced in the street. Although they had buried thousands of their comrades, and should, more likely, have been marching the streets in protest. 
America claimed victory.
Australia tried to divert attention. Korea was the new existential threat of choice.
On a rifle range. Lined up and shot. 
Is he fit to stand trial? 
I wonder how he will like the cell? 
Seconds from victory, they were seconds from defeat. 
There was no excuse for ignorance, but the Australian government had deliberately created an ignorant population, and their pipelines of sewage propaganda played across the diminished consciousnesses of the citizenry. 
They accepted their own manufactured defeat. 
On the other side of the world, Australia's Prime Malcolm Turnbull visited the Borough Markets.

Three terrorists drove a van into pedestrians on London Bridge before abandoning it to run into the popular area, stabbing people with foot-long knives as they went.
Speaking in the White Room at Downing Street before his meeting with Teresa May, Mr Turnbull became emotional as he spoke of his earlier meeting with police who had tried to save Ms Zelenak, saying he had found it hard not to "burst into tears" as he heard what happened.
"They were very brave men, very brave men and women and I just want to thank them on behalf of all Australians.
"It was a very moving visit ... and I want to say how much we admire the outstanding response of your police arriving on the scene so quickly, dealing with the terrorists so effectively and decisively," Mr Turnbull said.
"They ran towards the danger while others were fleeing it."
“We say to these killers to these terrorists that seek to change the way we live, we will not be cowed, we won’t change the way we live, we won’t stop going out at night, we won’t stop enjoying ourselves. We will defy you and defeat you.”
“We will continue to defeat them, in the field, at home, around the world, whether here in London, in Sydney and Melbourne in Manchester and in cyberspace as well.”

We choose for whom we weep. 

No mention of Mosul.
Yet the chances of Australia, which had been dropping more than 100 bombs a month on Mosul, not being involved in the slaughter of civilians, and the torturing, murdering and misconduct of the Iraqi Army in the wake of "victory", was somewhere below zero. 
On thickening skin, on crusting scar tissue, the angels of death. The killers in high places say their prayers out loud.


THE BIGGER STORY:

AT ANY COST: THE CIVILIAN CASUALTY IN WESTERN MOSUL, IRAQ

https://www.amnesty.org.au/west-mosul-iraqi-us-led-coalition-forces-failed-take-adequate-measures-protect-civilians/

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

“Our city is in ruins. They have treated us like we are absolutely nothing.” Ayman, west Mosul resident

The battle for west Mosul has caused a civilian catastrophe. Civilians have been ruthlessly exploited by the armed group calling itself the Islamic State (IS), which has systematically moved them into zones of conflict, used them as human shields and prevented them from escaping to safety. They have also been subjected to relentless and unlawful attacks by Iraqi government forces and members of the US-led coalition. Residents of west Mosul count themselves lucky if they escape with their lives.

In March and May 2017, Amnesty International visited northern Iraq to research violations of international humanitarian law and human rights abuses by all sides to the conflict in west Mosul.

In visits to west and east Mosul, as well as to several camps in Ninewa and Erbil governorates hosting people who had fled the fighting, Amnesty International interviewed 151 west Mosul residents. All of these residents were civilians; 44 were women, 105 were men, and two were under the age of 18. Amnesty International also interviewed doctors and other medical workers, international and national humanitarian workers, journalists, military and arms experts and United Nations officials.

On 21 and 22 June 2017, Amnesty International communicated the key findings detailed in this report in two letters: one addressed to Iraqi Minister of Defence Irfan al-Hayali and the other addressed to US Secretary of Defense James Mattis. No responses had been received as of 1 July 2017, when this report was finalized. Based on its research, which covers events from January to mid-May 2017, Amnesty International concludes that IS committed serious violations of international humanitarian law, including war crimes. Iraqi government and US-led coalition forces appear to have committed repeated violations of international humanitarian law, some of which may amount to war crimes.

During the battle for west Mosul, IS has flagrantly violated fundamental rules of international humanitarian law, including by deliberately putting civilians in harm’s way to shield their fighters and impede the advance of Iraqi and coalition forces. Beginning in October 2016, IS rounded up thousands of civilians in contested villages and neighbourhoods and forced them to move directly into zones of conflict in west Mosul.

This systematic campaign of forced displacement allowed IS to use an ever-greater number of civilians as human shields as their territory contracted. The armed group then prevented civilians from evacuating, in some cases trapping them inside their homes by welding their doors shut or by rigging the entrances with booby traps. IS also summarily killed hundreds, if not thousands, of men, women and children as they attempted to flee and hanged their bodies in public areas.

According to west Mosul resident “Hasan”: “We did not have “any options. If you stayed, you would die in your house from the fighting. If you tried to run away, they would catch you and kill you, and hang your body from the electricity pylon as a warning. Four of my neighbours were caught trying to escape, and I saw them hanging… They were left for days.” Consequently, as IS lost territory during the course of the battle for west Mosul, the areas it still controlled became increasingly crowded with civilians. In interviews with Amnesty International, Mosul residents regularly described sheltering in homes with relatives or neighbours in groups of between 15 and 100 people. IS also regularly denied medical care to civilians and prevented their access to the stockpiles of food its fighters had gathered. Civilians under IS control were left with only one chance of escape: directly through the front lines of the battle. West Mosul residents described desperate flights from their homes to areas controlled by Iraqi forces, doing all they could to avoid the air strikes, mortars, artillery attacks and gunfire that surrounded them.

VIOLATIONS COMMITTED BY PRO-GOVERNMENT FORCES

Tactics and violations created particular challenges for pro-government forces in terms of civilian protection in west Mosul. Iraqi government and US-led coalition forces failed to adequately adapt their tactics to these challenges – as required by international humanitarian law – with disastrous consequences for civilians.

Starting in January 2017, Iraqi government and US-led coalition forces (referred to in this report collectively as pro-government forces) carried out a series of unlawful attacks in west Mosul. Pro-government forces relied heavily upon explosive weapons with wide area effects such as IRAMs (Improvised Rocket Assisted Munitions).

With their crude targeting abilities, these weapons wreaked havoc in densely populated west Mosul, where large groups of civilians were trapped in homes or makeshift shelters. Even in attacks that seem to have struck their intended military target, the use of unsuitable weapons or failure to take other necessary precautions resulted in needless loss of civilian lives and in some cases appears to have constituted disproportionate attacks. “Faisal” from al-Msherfa, expressed outrage with pro-government forces’ tactics: “Did they [pro-government forces] try to hit IS targets? IS was with you, in your house.”

The true death toll of the west Mosul battle may never be known.

Firmly attributing responsibility for attacks has proved challenging for monitoring groups tracking civilian casualties in west Mosul. However, according to Airwars, one such monitoring group, between 19 February and 19 June 2017, attacks launched by Iraqi and coalition forces may have caused the deaths of as many as 5,805 civilians.

Even this figure may be an underestimate, as it has been difficult for monitors to record deaths and injuries due to the intensity of the fighting and the fact that IS has banned the use of mobile phones in areas under its control. For this report, Amnesty International investigated and documented 45 attacks in west Mosul that it had reasonable grounds to attribute to Iraqi government or US-led coalition forces.

These 45 attacks alone killed at least 426 civilians and injured more than 100. Pro-government forces failed to take feasible precautions to protect civilians during the battle for west Mosul. They did air-drop leaflets into IS-controlled areas of the city instructing civilians to stay away from IS. Yet these warnings were so difficult to heed that they were ridiculed by west Mosul residents.

People had no control over where IS moved. Instead, they were often held hostage in their own homes or neighbourhoods.

Moreover, IS threatened to kill those who read or even picked up these leaflets.

If military planners were unaware of the likely civilian toll of the west Mosul operation before it began, it would have become evident after the first weeks of the operation.

It was pro-government soldiers, after all, who assisted in countless front-line rescues, digging bodies out of collapsed buildings, separating the injured from the dead and arranging the transport of thousands to medical facilities nearby.

Despite this, pro-government forces failed to adequately adapt their tactics in order to effectively protect civilians. They continued to rely upon imprecise, explosive weapons, ignoring the ever-growing toll of civilian death and injuries. In such a densely populated urban environment, military planners should have taken extra care in targeting and their choice of weapons to ensure that attacks were not unlawful.