Assange exposed the USA trampling on Anzac war conventions

On Sunday April 25 Australians commemorated Anzac Day by remembering all the members of our armed services who served in wars including the catastrophic World War 1 and 2.

By comparison, we note that there are those who do not serve honourably, such as cold-blooded thugs who broke war conventions and whom WikiLeaks exposed.

If Macbeth was ‘death-infected,’ the latter-day US military is apocalyptic! The crimes committed by US and allied armed forces in places like Iraq that Wikileaks exposed affronted against every convention of warfare known to the “Diggers of the Anzac” (Australian New Zealand Army Corp). Soldiers who abided by these old-school conventions were celebrated for their fine work from 1914-1918 and 1939-1945 and in other wars.

The military manuals of civilized states and common law provisions of warfare were an on-going product of the Geneva Convention, but over the years the USA has blatantly trampled on such manuals of war. The USA was death infected too, perhaps in a similar way to how Macbeth was, only Macbeth killed people so he could become and remain King.

The war crimes, which Julian Assange exposed were from the modern-era wars and were especially specific to US forces and not the Anzacs of old times.

The crimes of the latter-day USA military have been inhuman, incredibly heinous and unknown in the old-time culture of the “Diggers of the Anzac.” If one indeed plays the Wikileaks Collateral Murder video to World War 2 veterans still alive today, it will make them sick to the stomach. Such distinguished and dignified veterans would have been horrified to hear about how the US soldiers carried out their extreme brand of violence, while accountable to the sorts of international war conventions the Anzacs themselves upheld.  

Mr Assange outlined to the Democracy Now news mediain the US, the nature of some of the US war crimes he came across. The scenario really sounded as if the soldiers of this current century obeyed the conventions of a sick computer video game and not the decent conventions of days gone by.

This was a far cry from what a Julian Assange Sydney Town Hall Gathering spokesperson, Tony, described when he referred to the Christmas Truce of 1914.  This was when British and allied soldiers and Germans emerged from their trenches on Christmas Day to shake hands with enemy soldiers and give them presents of plumb puddings and cigarettes. One report noted that a game of soccer was played and soldiers put Christmas Trees around their trenches.

Tony discussed the decency of these soldiers of days gone by and how things had changed, but he didn’t attribute all the blame on all of the modern-day soldiers. He acknowledged the more recent wars were so horrendous that there was a spike in veteran suicides. It was more than 10 suicides for each battlefield casualty, he said.

There was a lot of evidence to show good people who exposed the war crimes of today came from long lines of Anzac-respecting families. A Julian Assange Sydney Town Hall Gathering spokesperson, Karyn, used the Assange and McBride families as a case in point. Both families were strong supporters of the Anzac movement and the grand spirit it embodied more broadly.

It is important to examine the war conventions known to World War 1 and 2 veterans if one is to gain a good understanding of the sorts of conventions the so-called Bush-era soldiers trampled on.

The historian Ralph Potter suggested war was a “moral term”, which denotes that “the bearers of violence [would have acted] as officers of the public good.”

War was, for Mr Potter, “a human activity, governed by rules and regulations.” 

One person who thought this way was the historian Ronald Schaffer. “In World War 2, the Americans announced… they would hold to the traditional distinction between… combatants and non-combatants,” Mr Schaffer said. 

“In the Second World War the United States Army Air-force (AAF) enunciated a policy of [avoidance of] indiscriminate attacks on German citizens. American airmen were to make selective strikes against precise military and industrial targets [and to avoid]… direct attacks on the populace.

The Americans insisted that any killing of civilians would be accidental, the unintended consequence of an attack on forces or plants directly related to the war effort,” he said.

The American Historical Association provided a list of war conventions, from approximately 1899-1929.

The Geneva Convention, an international treaty which was worked on from as early as 1864 (the final year of the American Civil War), was a good guide to the engagement of hostilities and what was not acceptable behaviour. The Red Cross codified a set of customs into international humanitarian law, the American radio network, NPR reported.

The Hague published its relevant conventions in 1899, the American Historical Association stated.

The Geneva Conventions of 1949 resulted from World War 2 and expanded the rules for the military to protect, and not use violence against civilians, who were not fighting.

The American Historical Association stated that under the common law of warfare, international agreements and customs, the US armed forces military organisation was not supposed to have:

  • killed the wounded,
  • treated prisoners of war inhumanely (there was a Red Cross convention to the contrary),
  • fired on undefended localities,
  • bombed hospitals,
  • engaged in purposeless destruction or Ill-treatment of inhabitants in occupied territory,

If these things resulted in death, the guilty soldiers should be prosecuted for murder “… in violation of the laws and customs of warfare,” the Association stated.

When a territory was captured, the “occupant” should take all the measures in its power to restore and ensure public order and safety, while it respected the laws of the country.

Bombings of Hiroshima, Nagasaki and Dresden, while a complete disgrace to all humanity, were carried out to stop a World War. The US was not tasked with the need to urgently stop a World War in Iraq and Afghanistan. On the contrary, the US Military Industrial Complex and its associates were quite happy to drag out the Bush-era wars, into latter eras. There was not any need for them to behave in an unconscionable manner, reminiscent of blood-thirsty criminals.

Air-raids may have been commonplace in World War 2, but, in general, the military in those days did not behave as if it was a band of assassins. There is no excuse for moral recalcitrance in the 21st Century. 

Joseph in collaboration with the Julian Assange Sydney Town Hall Gathering

Readers can donate to the defence fund, which Julian Assange’s partner Stella Moris set up, via the following link:  https://www.crowdjustice.com/case/julianassange/

Readers can sign this Phillip Adams petition on Change.org. It now sits in the International Criminal Court in the Hague, where they will investigate the criminality of what Western world governments have done to Julian Assange. Approximately 600,000 people have signed it. It is not too late for you to tell The Hague you don’t agree with what has been done to Julian Assange. Sign it today.

Sydney readers can attend our Julian Assange Sydney Town Hall Gathering each Friday at the Town Hall on George Street, near Town Hall Station, between 4pm and 6pm.  Alternatively, readers can attend the Julian Assange Parramatta Gathering at Centenary Square, outside the Parramatta Town Hall, 182 Church Street, Parramatta, from 4pm.

View our Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1488127181577501/

Email to our Julian Assange Sydney Town Hall Gathering to go on our email list:  julianassangesydneytownhall@gmail.com

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