-
@jljacobson There are so many failures in how we think through the morality of deliberate bombing of cities. (Yes, it's wrong, but we're both talking about specific language here.)Permalink On twitter.com
Mood -3 🙁
-
@jljacobson Mass destruction of civilian infrastructure via bombs and artillery (this also applies to bulldozers, in other places) is a war crime. And a widespread practice by major and middle powers, from the US in Iraq, to Russia in Syria and Ukraine, to Israel in Gaza.Permalink On twitter.com
-
@jljacobson A clear moral red line (or, as Israeli wording puts it "a black flag") hangs over this practice.Permalink On twitter.com
-
@jljacobson On whether it's genocide, in the commonly understood terms… Here, we're stuck with (or at least weighed down by) some political compromises made in the mid-20th century.Permalink On twitter.com
-
@jljacobson UN Convention on genocide requires "the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial, or religious group." In the case I tweeted about, Nazi Germany tried to do that to basically everyone they invaded, except perhaps ethnic Germans in Poland.Permalink On twitter.com
-
@jljacobson But beyond that case, there's a strong case that sustained strategic bombing of a poltically resistant foreign population amounts to genocide. Here's Jean-Paul Sartre making that case re: the US in Vietnam, as the judgment of the Russell Tribunal. spokesmanbooks.com/Spokesman/PDF/93Sartre.pdfPermalink On twitter.com
-
@jljacobson Because international law and common use of the word genocide were shaped around the 1945 Allied victory, things that the Allies did were generally separated from this label, but the moral case against mass bombing campaigns is strong. bookdepository.com/Holocaust-Strategic-Bombing-Eric-Markusen/9780813375328Permalink On twitter.com
-
@jljacobson Little doubt that the US-UK firebombings would be regarded as criminal, perhaps the epitome of international evil, had the Allies lost the war. blog.nuclearsecrecy.com/2014/03/12/firebombs-usa/Permalink On twitter.com
-
@jljacobson (Of course, had the Allies lost the war, I don't think genocide would be an international crime at all. Axis powers were openly pro-genocide. Raphael Lemkin would have been executed instead of seeing his concept enshrined at the UN.)On twitter.com