-the International
Criminal Court (ICC) is considering
prosecuting US service members over alleged war crimes in Afghanistan.(and obviously in the rest of the Mideast areas, subsequently, m.l.p.)
"This is part of a series of US war crimes in Iraq, Afghanistan and other countries."In September, John Bolton, the national security advisor to US
President Donald Trump, threatened sanctions against the International
Criminal Court (ICC) following reports that it was considering
prosecuting US servicemembers over alleged war crimes in Afghanistan.
the issue now raised is who brought the convict Nicholas Slatten and all the Nicolas Slattens to Iraq?Who trained him and groomed him to be ''active'' in this criminal manner?Who paid for his guns and amunitions?Who taught him and was his mentor?
Undoubtedly by some economic entity's assets and by the tax-payers money, at their unawares and under manipulative, sick propaganda and lies.
All Deep State malevolently groomed, abused, maltreated, tortured, MK-ultraed, brain washed, mind controlled, multiple-personalities broken persons, soldiers, children, youths, instruments, pawns have to be treated and cured back to health and body-soul-spirit-psypche harmony.
At the time, the Blackwater employees were escorting a US embassy envoy through Nisour Square in Baghdad, Iraq. Firearms were discharged after it was reportedly suspected that a vehicle carrying explosives was approaching the envoy.
"The United States will use any means necessary to protect our citizens and those of our allies from unjust prosecution by this illegitimate court," Bolton told officials at a meeting of the Federalist Society. "We will not cooperate with the ICC, we will provide no assistance to the ICC, and we certainly will not join the ICC."
"We will consider taking steps in the UN Security Council to constrain the Court's sweeping powers, including ensuring that the ICC does not exercise jurisdiction over Americans and the nationals of our allies that have not ratified the Rome Statute," Bolton added.
The court responded to Bolton's threats by indicating in a short statement that it is an "independent and impartial judicial institution… [which serves] as an instrument to ensure accountability for crimes that shock the conscience of humanity."
Zeese believes that in time, the US will be held accountable for its crimes abroad.
Analysis
With airstrikes and ground forces, the Americans and their Kurdish partners systematically pushed the Islamic State from almost all its territory. The U.S. helped stabilize the northeast region of the country, where civilians are returning to areas now controlled by the Kurds. While the larger war grinds on, with no end in sight, the American presence is seen as placing at least some restraints on the Syrian military.
But President Trump says it's now time for the U.S. forces to leave. He hinted at such a move with a Wednesday morning tweet: "We have defeated ISIS in Syria, my only reason for being there during the Trump presidency."
He followed up with a video on Wednesday evening: "We've beaten them and we've beaten them badly. We've taken back the land and now it's time for our troops to come back home."
"I think it's a grave error," said Sen. Marco Rubio, a Florida Republican. "I think our adversaries around the world are going to go to our partners and allies and say, 'You see, America's unreliable.'"
The president has also faced mounting Republican criticism on another key Middle East policy — his approach to Saudi Arabia. The kingdom has come under intense criticism after the killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
Trump came into office saying he wanted to swiftly defeat terrorist groups in the Middle East and bring American forces home from conflicts in the region.
He has essentially carried on with President Obama's policy in Syria, launched in 2014, when ISIS was at its peak, and defined by an aggressive bombing campaign and a small number of U.S. forces who work with the Kurds and other U.S. partners. The U.S. has an estimated 2,000 troops in Syria, mostly in the northeast.
Dismantling ISIS has been an important achievement, and has come at a far lower cost compared to other U.S. military engagements in the region.
But the president's critics say a withdrawal risks losing many of these gains.
"Just because President Trump tweets that he has defeated ISIS doesn't make us safer," Sen. Jack Reed of Rhode Island, the senior Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, said in a statement. "The president continues to disregard the advice of his military, diplomatic and intelligence personnel who have consistently warned against the action the president seems poised to take."
The president's critics cite several concerns:
An ISIS revival: As a fighting force, ISIS has been reduced to small pockets in the east of the country, near the border with Iraq. Recent fighting has focused in and around the eastern town of Hajin, on the Euphrates River.
The fear is that if the U.S. pulls out, the ISIS fighters who have scattered may regroup and return as a powerful force. The group emerged rapidly in 2013-2014, taking over large parts of Syria and Iraq, where the government and security forces were weak.
An emboldened Bashar Assad: A U.S. departure would make Syrian President Bashar Assad feel more secure in his grip on power. The Syrian military has avoided direct contact or provocations that could turn the American forces against him.
The U.S. military has, in effect, assisted Assad by greatly weakening one of his most dangerous enemies, ISIS. This has allowed Assad to focus his military forces on other threats, and he has defeated most of them. If the Americans depart, he could look to reclaim other parts of the country he's lost during the past seven years of war.
Iran and Russia claim a victory: Iran has invested heavily with military and economic assistance to prop up Assad since the beginning of the war. Russian President Vladimir Putin sent military forces to support Syria in 2015, the year after the U.S. entered the war.
Both Iran and Russia would view it as a major success if the American military leaves and Assad continues to consolidate power. The same would be true for Hezbollah, the Lebanese group that has fought alongside Assad's forces.
Turkey launches offensive against the Kurds: While the U.S. has partnered with the YPG, the Syrian Kurdish militia, Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan views them as terrorists who threaten his country. Turkey has signaled it wants to launch an offensive in northern Syria against the Kurdish group. Such a move could destabilize a mostly calm area, displacing civilians and touching off new refugee flows.
U.S. abandons an ally: Kurds throughout the Middle East have felt abandoned by the U.S. on multiple occasions in the past, and were hoping for better this time after waging some of the toughest fighting against the Islamic State. But a U.S. pullout raises the prospect of the Kurds fending for themselves against the Syrian military on one side and and the Turkish forces on the other.
More broadly, a U.S. departure would likely be viewed as part of a larger U.S. military and political drawdown in the region after so many years of frustrating, inconclusive fights.
Greg Myre is a national security correspondent who reported from the Middle East for more than a decade. Follow him @gregmyre1.
The American military intervention in Syria represents one of the most successful and cost-effective military operations of the post-9/11 era. At a minimal cost in American lives — through maximum cooperation with courageous Kurdish and Arab allies — the ISIS caliphate has been reduced to rubble, Russian and Iranian ambitions in Syria have been checked, and the United States has gained valuable territorial leverage in the negotiation for a permanent peace settlement in the Syrian civil war.
But there is work left to be done. ISIS is down but not out, our Syrian allies remain vulnerable, and Russia and Iran retain their own ambitions for regional domination. That’s why Trump’s advisers have repeatedly talked him out of making a serious error by abandoning Syria before the mission is complete. As recently as September he seemed to have reached a definitive decision. American forces would stay, and he’d begin a renewed “diplomatic push” for a sustainable peace.
Well, Trump has reversed course, and he’s about to make that serious mistake. Here’s the New York Times:
President Trump has ordered a rapid withdrawal of all 2,000 United States ground troops from Syria within 30 days, declaring the four-year American-led war against the Islamic State as largely won, officials said Wednesday.Rukmini Callimachi — the reporter who has likely done more than any other journalist to educate the public about ISIS — had an effective, fact-based retort to Trump’s declaration of victory:
“We have defeated ISIS in Syria, my only reason for being there during the Trump Presidency,” the president said in a Twitter post on Wednesday morning. He offered no details on his plans for the military mission, nor a larger strategy, in Syria.
The ISIS caliphate, the physical nation-state they tried to build in 2014–15, is largely in ruins. ISIS the terrorist organization still exists, and it still has thousands of fighters. It is still a threat, and an American retreat gives it the potential to re-create safe havens in Syrian territory.
Moreover, Trump’s retreat empowers both Iran and Russia — granting a great strategic gift to two of America’s chief geopolitical foes. When Vladimir Putin intervened in Syria’s civil war to save the Assad regime, Barack Obama famously warned that Russia was getting sucked into a “quagmire.” In fact, Russia’s intervention has so far been an unmitigated success. He helped tip the balance of power in the civil war, secured continued access to Russia’s naval base in Tartus, and restored Russian influence in the region to a level not seen since the Cold War.
Trump’s decision also seriously weakens the very same Kurdish allies who fought and bled by our side in the campaign against the caliphate. They’ll now be vulnerable to Assad’s regime in the south and Turkish forces in the north. Without strong security guarantees, it is not too much to say that we are on the verge of abandoning the Kurds in Syria.
Finally, it’s important to note that Trump is reportedly disregarding the counsel of his own national-security team. They have allegedly talked him out of previous retreats, articulating many of the reasons outlined above, but today’s announcement is proof that, for all the supposed consolation that an inexperienced president has surrounded himself with capable national-security advisers, his decision is the one that matters.
One would think that a GOP administration would have learned the lessons of Obama’s reckless withdrawal from Iraq. American retreats often create power vacuums that are often filled by American enemies. Now, after all the blood spilled and tears shed since the rise of ISIS, Donald Trump is set to make his own version of Obama’s deadly mistake.