It Looks as if the Obama Administration Is Going to Skate on its Doctors without Borders Hospital Bombing — Arguably Courtesy of Our American Media’s Willingness to Enable War Criminality

19 October 2015

Out of sight, out of mind

More than two weeks ago the US bombed the Doctors without Borders hospital in Kunduz, Afghanistan — killing 22 innocents, including physicians, children and critical care patients.

Ever since, the Obama Administration has (apparently) been doing its best, with the American mainstream media's complicity, to cover up what happened:

The Pentagon concedes the hospital was “restricted” – not to be attacked under any circumstances, and that they were informed early in the attack that they were hitting a hospital. Despite this, the attacks continued for a solid hour . . . .

Today’s comments have US officials . . . saying it is “preposterous” to think that the US would “knowingly” attack a protected facility even if it knew there was a target within. Yet the US did attack the facility, and confirms it was protected, and so far there hasn’t been even a mediocre excuse for it.

US officials seem to be determined to keep the incident as shrouded in mystery as possible, leaking only bare minimum narratives while the White House openly rejects the idea of allowing an international investigation, and dismisses the suggestion that attacking a hospital full of civilians is even a potential war crime.

As for MSF, they’re still pushing for the probe, though after last week when a US tank smashed its way into the now closed hospital [— see account here —], causing major damage and destroying potential evidence, the prospect that there will be anything left, even if the US gets around to allowing a legitimate investigation, seems remote.

One would think that 2 weeks would have been long enough to find out what happened

Accountability is, after all, what responsive chains of military command are for. Or are we so indiscriminately killing folks all over the world that no one feels obligated to keep tabs?

The associated Obama Administration penchant for cover up is, I surmise, why Médecins Sans Frontières called for an international investigation of the bombing.

The moral? — We have gone from torture to killing hospital patients, children and medical staff

Perhaps we should ask ourselves what the supposedly exceptional United States is aiming at and why:

In the Intensive Care Unit six patients were burning in their beds.

We had to organise a mass casualty plan in the office, seeing which doctors were alive and available to help. We did an urgent surgery for one of our doctors. Unfortunately he died there on the office table.

We saw our colleagues dying.

These are people who had been working hard for months, non-stop for the past week . . . . they had just been working in the hospital to help people... and now they are dead.

I have no words to express this. It is unspeakable.

Cowardice motivates violence and forgetfulness. The result is dead medical staff and patients burning in their beds.

Is this the Obama Legacy?

PeteFree.com

It Looks as if the Obama Administration Is Going to Skate on its Doctors without Borders Hospital Bombing — Arguably Courtesy of Our American Media’s Willingness to Enable War Criminality