That is becoming crystal clear.
The Afghans seem to have declared it a target.
That the US carried out the attack that killed so many and razed the Hospital is also clear.
MSF had previously supplied the Hospitals co-ordinates to NATO, The US and The Afghan Government, so they knew in advance who they were bombing.
The Hospital was clearly marked.
Now we get the shit storm
A number of Afghan officials appeared to try to justify Saturday morning’s deadly air strike, alleging Taliban insurgents were hiding inside the hospital grounds and firing on security forces.
The hospital was “100 per cent used by Taliban”, Hamidullah Danishi, acting governor of Kunduz, told the Washington Post, adding that their firing was “tolerated for some time”.
The response from MSF
MSF has repeatedly denied Taliban fighters were present in their hospital, stressing that no staff member present that night reported fighting on the grounds.
In a strongly worded rebuke, MSF characterised the statements of some Afghan officials as disgusting.
“These statements imply that Afghan and US forces working together decided to raze to the ground a fully functioning hospital,” said Christopher Stokes, MSF’s general director. "This amounts to an admission of a war crime."
The reason I am not letting this go is because I am absolutely fed up of letting war crimes slide. It is not a question of who was subjected to a war crime, what organization or even what country committed the act. Same for the atrocities committed by the Taliban, Al Qaeda, ISIS or whomever.
One crime does not justify another
I have long refused to look forward, there is no statute of limitations for war crimes.
Our response to our own war crime of torture was truly pathetic and disgusting. I don't care how bad or not the people we tortured were, torture is a war crime there is no fuzzy middle ground in this.
Preemptive war, bombing hospitals, weddings, funerals by manned or drone aircraft has become acceptable to some.
It is not and never will be acceptable.
The guilty need to be brought to justice and that means even those at the very top and I don't give a fuck what bullshit party, group or country they belong to.
I don't care if it is inconvenient.
I don't care if they have rethought their votes, the fact of the matter is that the carnage has not ceased.
I really don't fucking care about any of the excuses, especially American Exceptionalism [which is a phrase that should have been interred a long time ago along with Collateral Damage].
To me this is not about one incident it is about the whole wreck that has become the Middle East. The rise and rise of extremist groups, extremist interventionists and the hundreds of thousands of dead and the millions of refugees.
This one incident encapsulates the whole rotten tragedy.
I won't shut up, and every action thus far has only lead to more death and misery and the acceptance of the same.
Enough.
You can donate to MSF here
Or you can donate to Veterans charities, UN organizations, Amnesty International, The Red Cross or any one else that has suffered through this ongoing tragedy [for some ideas see my blogroll]
4:48 AM PT: H/T Ernest T Bass
here is a link to a comment in the diary that has excellent links
http://www.dailykos.com/...
5:01 AM PT: From the ICRC
Kabul/Geneva (ICRC) - The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) is deeply shocked by the bombing of the MSF hospital in Kunduz, and strongly condemns such violence against patients, medical workers and facilities.
Following Medecins Sans Frontieres' confirmation of the bombing of the Trauma Center in Kunduz, in which three MSF staff died, Jean-Nicolas Marti, Head of the ICRC delegation in Afghanistan, said: "This is an appalling tragedy. Such attacks against health workers and facilities undermine the capacity of humanitarian organizations to assist the Afghan people at a time when they most urgently need it."
Jean-Nicolas Marti added: "Neutral and impartial humanitarian assistance is crucial today in Afghanistan."
~
Under international humanitarian law (IHL), the civilian population, medical personnel, ambulances and medical facilities must be respected and protected in all circumstances, and the work of medical personnel must be facilitated.
Note: The ICRC also had 2 staff members at the Hospital during the attack, neither were fortunately hurt. So the ICRC will have direct information as well
.
7:32 AM PT: Live feed General Cambell
http://time.com/...
7:42 AM PT: Well MSF occupied a few minutes.
Now they are back to mutually praising each other, more troops perhaps
7:50 AM PT: Now we have gone back to more troops and more war.
God it is depressing
7:54 AM PT: I cant watch any more of this crap, someone else can.