By Kenneth J. Theisen
As part of writing for the World Can’t wait site I regularly read the
U.S. Department of Defense’s website. On May 6th I was struck by one
of the articles on the Pentagon’s site. It was entitled, “Coalition
Troops Teach International Law to Iraqi Forces.” The article reports
that troops in the 82nd Airborne Division are training “Iraqi soldiers
and police on international law and human rights.”
Army Capt. Eric Widmar stated “The course was focused on training legal advisors and operators for the Iraqi security forces. The focus was to train them on the Laws of Armed Conflict with a focus on the Geneva Conventions and the Hague Conventions. The legal obligation to distinguish between combatants and civilians, the legal obligation to care for the wounded and the treatment of detainees and other human rights subjects were taught.”
What irony? Military members of a nation that violated international law by invading Iraq are now purportedly teaching Iraqis about the laws which they themselves are violating. The treatment of detainees? Give me a break. The army that maintains hellhole prisons like Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo is teaching the Iraq army about treatment of detainees? Do they refer to the Geneva Conventions as “quaint” like former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales? Do they review John Yoo’s memo on acceptable torture techniques?
A country that considers the deaths of civilians as “collateral damage” is lecturing others about the “legal obligation to distinguish between combatants and civilians.” In the lecture does the army take credit for the hundreds of thousands of Iraqi civilians who have died as a direct result of the U.S. invasion?
For those who want to read what a great job the U.S. military is doing in educating Iraqis on the fine points of international law, see http://www.defenselink.mil/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=49789 . This is the BS that the military feeds to its troops and its supporters. Unfortunately it just makes me gag.
For the truth, I would refer readers to the Winter Soldier testimony on this site.
Ken Theisen is a veteran activist of movements opposing U.S. imperialism, its wars and domination of countries throughout the world, and an advocate against domestic violence in the San Francisco Bay Area.