Like? Is anyone who starts a war a “war criminal” now?
If it’s because Russia’s killed civilians (whether intentionally or just because they didn’t care enough in pursuit of their military objectives), then, like, isn’t basically every Western leader + Biden a “war criminal”? How would you ever create a standard that could include him but not others?
And if they are all “war criminals” then why would you support one over the other? I don’t get this conversation.
And even if you had to, like, in what world would it make sense to think that Putin is worse than Netanyahu or the Western leaders who arm and support him?
I mean, there are 10 million Ukrainian refugees, and it’s less fair to blame them for their government’s disposition than to blame Putin for actually taking the action. That’s not quite a war crime though.
There were also occupied apartment buildings that got hit with rockets early on, but it would be hard to prove that those were specfically targeted, as opposed to bombs dropped from aircraft like the IDF and DoD do regularly.
And if they are all “war criminals” then why would you support one over the other? I don’t get this conversation.
They ARE ALL war criminals. Exactly, why would you support any of them? I don’t understand your dilemma.
Well his spies claim that he blew up the apartment complex that was the precursor to the chechen wars. And then they got assassinated. You probably don’t waste manpower and high profile weapons on somebody who’s telling lies. Still,
I believe the US walked back all claims on war criminality and genocide because that causes them to define what it is, which makes their own government liable. The same thing happened with China. Biden or some speaker would make epic speeches condemning China’s genocide or recognizing Taiwan, only for a less high profile white house memo is released saying there is no genocide and there is only one china, the PRC.
The reasoning for Putin, specifically, being a supposed war criminal has to so with orphaned children in Mariupol being inducted into Russian care and fostering. Technically, this does qualify as genocide under the geneva conventions, quite explicitly.
However. Considering the history, and special hatred the Ukrainian nazi paramilitary groups had for the Russian populace of Mariupol, it’s not surprising Russia wasn’t just going to hand orphaned kids back to their parents tormentors.
Of course, any one who has been watching these western captured international legal institutions over the last few years know what they are for: moral othering of anyone suffering from western imperialism, not impartial justice.
