AhlulBayt News Agency (ABNA): Defending human rights and freedoms globally has been one of the most glaring slogans various US administrations trumpeted for decades to justify their policies. Even at times, building on self-proclaimed role of world police, Washington posed as a justice enforcer.
The facts on the ground, as well as the American behavior and actions, however, show that there is distance between reality and claims, and there have been times when the country itself violated justice and human rights in various world parts.
The latest witness to these violations is murdering of 10 innocent Afghan citizens in an attack following the American occupation forces' withdrawal and Taliban takeover.
On August 29, the US forces, during withdrawal from Kabul airport attacked a vehicle, killing 10 civilians including 7 children, claiming that they identified and attacked one of the masterminds of a suicide attack on the airport carried out three days earlier. The Pentagon initially tried to justify the attack, but after aspects went clear, the drone strike was acknowledged as a mistake. Pentagon Press Secretary John Kirby stated that Washington offers condolence compensations to the families of drone strike.
Following the Pentagon's confession to botched strike, trial of the military personnel involved was expected to take place inside the US and or even by international court.
"None of the military personnel involved in a botched drone strike in Kabul, Afghanistan, that killed 10 civilians will face any kind of punishment," New York Times reported on Monday, citing a Pentagon statement. The decision has a translation: Human rights and justice have never been the case in the American foreign policy and that the White House only instrumentalized them for decades.
Terrorist actions and testing arms under counterterrorism ruse
Starting from the 2000s, raising counterterrorism agenda, the US administrations carried out killings and tested their newly-developed arms in other countries. The so-called mistaken attack was a show of anti-ISIS and terror fight in the last days of presence in Afghanistan. Although the attack took life of the prominent Afghan aid worker Zamari Ahmadi and members of his family, the American government waged a media show conveying that Washington is committed to anti-terror war even if the attack was a mistake.
According to the UN figures, more than 32,000 civilians have been killed in Afghanistan's military conflict over the past 18 years. The revelation of the criminal face of the US forces discredits the claims about striking the terrorism in Afghanistan over the past two decades, and possibly like the August incident, the civilians have been the main victims of the American weapons tests.
But the important thing is that none of the US military crimes are prosecutable. The crimes in Afghanistan are rejected or hidden from media outlets, and if disclosed, judicial actions are blocked.
US disregard of international rights advocacy institutions
Since long ago, the Americans have been giving no credibility to the rulings and decisions by human rights organizations and international courts should they conflict with their interest, going against their claims of defending human rights. An example case is the International Criminal Court's looking into killing of the Afghanistan civilians.
In early March last year, ICC, a permanent international court prosecuting genocides, war crimes, and crimes against humanity, gave a green light to an investigation into possible American war crimes in Afghanistan. In the case, the US troops in Afghanistan were accused of committing war crimes against civilians in Afghanistan. Following this decision, time's US President Donald Trump boycotted the ICC. He threatened its prosecutors that they would face economic sanctions from the US if they investigated the actions of US troops in Afghanistan without Washington's consent. The sanctions against the judges included assets freeze and travel ban on them and their families.
Although Joe Biden repealed Trump’s sanctions on the two senior ICC officials, Washington kept denouncing the court's decisions on Palestine and Afghanistan. Although the ICC ruling is non-binding to the US, it gives publicity to the genuine nature of the American presence in various countries and brings in spotlight the American crimes to the world public opinion. However, Afghanistan future government would possibly not allow this crime case go cold and seriously pursue it as part of its international agenda.
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