SonicDimension wrote:I don’t recall any wars where the US did anything remotely resembling this.
In 2015, the United States military bombed a well-marked hospital run by Doctors Without Borders and killed over 40 people, including children and charity medical staff.
I was incorrect about my earlier estimates of civilian casualties in the Iraq war. The correct number was oblver 110,000 people dead by direct violence, at a conservative estimate. This included women and children obliterated by bombs, in a war waged for oil, under obviously false pretenses.
The Vietnam War was absolutely full of atrocities where the United States military totally slaughtered entire villages of civilians:
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Mai Lai Massacre-
Operation Speedy Express (5,000-7,000 civilians murdered)
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Intentional killings of civilians by Tiger ForceThe National Guard also massacred students protesting the war on 2 separate college campuses (Kent State and Jackson State), and the President of the United States called the victims "bums."
And many, many more.
Let's also not forget that the United States dropped two atomic bombs on civilian Japanese cities, outright killing hundreds of thousands of men, women, and children, and poisoning the ground with radiation that caused additional deaths from cancer for decades.
The United States is absolutely no stranger to engaging in the intentional, wholesale slaughter of civilians. Sure, the generals make excuses or rationalizations for it - just as the Russian leaders do.
My purpose in this is
not whataboutism. If you'll recall, description of the atrocities regularly committed by the US military (which I'm forced to contribute to with my taxes) came because I was pointing out the double standard in Westerners stating that ordinary Russians should suffer under poverty-inducing egregious sanctions until they materialize a revolution against a brutal totalitarian state that will most likely kill them, while expecting no such thing of poor Americans when their government commits equally horrible atrocities.
I am in no way remotely excusing the horrific things the Russian army and Putin are doing. Frankly, I do hope they overthrow him, just as I hope the murderers and psychopaths running the US government and military eventually face a war crimes tribunal of the people.
What I'm saying is that my problem is with the Russian politicians commanding the army, not the poor who just happened to be born in a particular geographic area. Yes, I realize a lot of them support Putin. Many also don't. Even if a relatively small portion- say 30%- totally oppose the war, that's still millions and millions of people who hate what's going on being punished for something they have no control over, and that's not even considering the complex ways people do mental gymnastics to deal with the cognitive dissonance of their government doing something terrible. My solution is providing direct aid to those who are fighting back, both Ukrainians and Russians. This is something activists across the world are literally doing, and it's actively inhibited by sanctions imposed by the government and by major financial corporations who, meanwhile, are profiting off investments in blood diamonds, private prisons, and companies using sweatshop and child slave labor.
BTW, I appreciate the apology.