On Wednesday, an international panel announced it will pursue an investigation into the United States’ bombing of a Médecins sans Frontière (MSF, or Doctors Without Borders) hospital in Kunduz, Afghanistan.
The U.S. bombing in Kunduz killed 22 people and is being called a war crime. As described by MSF international president, Joanne Liu, “Our patients burned in their beds; MSF doctors, nurses, and other staff were killed as they worked. Our colleagues had to operate on each other.”
The International Humanitarian Fact Finding Committee (IHFFC) is the international panel pursuing the investigation, and according to its website, aims to “[ensure] the respect for, and faithful implementation of, international humanitarian law.”
The IHFFC was formed in 1990 but has never actually been activated, meaning if the MSF investigation moves forward, it will be the first of its kind.
IHFFC requires just one thing before it begins the investigation: compliance from the United States and Afghan governments.
“It is for the concerned Governments to decide whether they wish to rely on the IHFFC. The IHFFC can only act based on the consent of the concerned State or States. The IHFFC cannot give any further information at this stage,” the IHFFC said Wednesday in a statement.
The situation places the United States and its Afghan allies in a quagmire.
They can either consent to the investigation and presumably be torn apart for their actions, or they can decline, likely citing a “matter of national security” when the public accuses them of covering up their crimes. Either way, it appears both nations will continue to be eviscerated by the independent media and the public as new discoveries about the sordid strike come to light. It seems unlikely that the U.S. would allow itself to be put in that vulnerable situation, but it faces a lose/lose situation, nonetheless.
The president of MSF said, “We have received apologies and condolences, but this is not enough.” “We are still in the dark about why a well-known hospital full of patients and medical staff was repeatedly bombarded for more than an hour. We need to understand what happened and why,” she continued in a statement on Wednesday.
Yesterday, the Associated Press reported that “American special operations analysts were gathering intelligence on an Afghan hospital days before it was destroyed by a U.S. military attack because they believed it was being used by a Pakistani operative to coordinate Taliban activity,”
This revelation suggests the U.S. had knowledge of the hospital’s location. It also offers insight, if it is confirmed that the hospital was purposely bombed, into the United States’ lackluster process that decides on targets for airstrikes.
On Thursday, a U.S. tank rudely rolled into the destroyed hospital “with investigators inside” the tank, a gesture of disrespect that destroyed evidence. “Their unannounced and forced entry damaged property, destroyed potential evidence and caused stress and fear,” said MSF.
The U.S. has ignored the idea of an independent inquiry, claiming that its own internal investigation will suffice. As White House spokesman Josh Earnest said, “The administration has confidence that the investigation that is currently underway by the Department of Defense will provide the full accounting of the situation that the president has asked for.”
The United States’ problems in Afghanistan are far from over in the wake of a resurgent Taliban and under-prepared Afghan security forces. President Obama announced yesterday that 5,500 troops will remain in the country until 2017 and likely many years into the future.
The following is a video released by MSF after the devastating bombing and shows the hospital before and after.
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Remember similar actions following the 9-11 treason?
My thoughts precisely!!!!
What happened to that hospital is a tragedy. However it could have been avoided had MSF followed international law. In other articles, MSF has said they marked the roof of the hospital with their flag, which is not one of the three symbols such as a red cross recognized by international law. The US government is doing enough evil in that part of the world that there is no need to set up a propaganda event.
Oh yes, shame, they are sooo stupid, how could they have
known it is a health care facility!? Crap!!! …….NO, because the US is doing so MUCH
evil in that part of the world Everything Must be scrutinized and exposed
continually.
Their location was reported more than once before the bombing per purcedure…and again as first bombs hit, but bombing continued, for more than a half hour. Don’t fall for my governments lies
I don’t believe the lies my government tells. I don’t like when the government sets up a staged event like Sandy Hook, nor do I like it when someone else sets up a staged event. And that is what Kunduz Hospital is, a staged event.
you will never get an honest answer,
that was a direct assault on your sovereignty and your better believe that the United States, Israel, France, England, Germany Saudi, Turkey, United Nations and the European Union were all in on it.
each one of these corrupted nations have been genociding and poisoning our planet for decades and it has to stop somewhere. I wish it could be you to bust this crime wide open and put every one of these pathological narcissistic insane Jesuit/Khazar/Fascist/Illuminati, SOB’s in jail cells where they belong and waiting for execution.
Why waste time putting them in jail? Shoot them on the spot as you locate each and every one.
spot on Vera
That’s what thugs do: destroy the evidence.
What an odious and shameless nation the US has turned into. The US needs to go on a leash!
The two atomic bombs dropped on Japan was just a muscle-flex for Russia. Japan has already surrendered at the time. They slaughtered over 300,000 lives just for the show. The Afghanistan hospital bombing was just a road kill to them.
Can not have a war without bodies. You have not created enough people who hate your guts by murdering their families, bomb a hospital and lie about why you did it.