Tsar Nicholas would approve:
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-35162523
^So, according to Amnesty International, Russian intervention in Syria really is producing what are in actual fact war crimes.
"Quoting witnesses, the human rights group accuses Russia of using cluster bombs in civilian areas and says such attacks could constitute war crimes.
Russia's defence ministry dismissed the report as containing "fake information" and "trite cliches".
It also rejected Amnesty's accusations about cluster bombs, Reuters reports.
Amnesty said in its report it was also researching concerns about the US-led coalition air strikes in Syria.
The US has rarely acknowledged civilian deaths in its air bombardment of the so-called Islamic State (IS), which began in September 2014, although some monitoring groups say the toll could run into hundreds."
Now admittedly, one might expect both superpowers are going to lie through their teeth about civilians being hit by bombs. The USA has always done this, always said it's doing nothing of the sort in public and in private the generals rank success by the amount of civilian dead the bombs leave behind them. And there is no surprise that civilians invariably end up targeted in what are in actual practice war crimes.
The problem is that with the USA essentially conceding Russia its major goal of saving Assad (and of course the heroic Russian Army is only bombing US proxies and hasn't yet dropped a single damned bomb on Daesh, to a point even Daesh says so:
http://www.interpretermag.com/putin-in-syria-even-isis-says-russia-is-not-bombing-isis/)
there is literally nothing to stop the Russians from blowing up as many civilians as they wish. At this point Russia's secured Crimea as a minimum gain from its invasion of Ukraine, and it's saved its proxy. Like many of Russia's petty small minded thugs in charge, Putin has zero fucks to give about what his policies do to Russia's people in terms of sanctions, while China, of course, sees a chance for some long-belated revenge on the part of the dragon against the bear in terms of basically owning Russia even more than it owns America.
I'd love to see how all the people who think war crimes are terrible expect to stop the Russians committing them. The USA will give three weeks of hand-wringing and no actual punishment for perpetrators, Russia won't even do the hand-wringing. Which is worse, crocodile tears or saying "What civilians?" even when the bodies are mutilated and burning and continuing to do precisely what other people are saying is such a terrible thing to do? As Sherman said, war is cruelty and you cannot refine it.
And it's worth noting, too, that the first instinct of Europeans after something like Paris was not to indulge in mass understanding and compassion, as Americans are chided to do whenever terrorists bomb and blow up Americans, or Turks when Kurds blow up Turkish babies, or Israelis and Palestinians when both blow up each other's babies, they immediately resorted to bombing Daesh and adding yet another complication to an already-tangled mess. There is no simple or bloodless solution to this mess. The options for such have long since passed.
^So, according to Amnesty International, Russian intervention in Syria really is producing what are in actual fact war crimes.
"Quoting witnesses, the human rights group accuses Russia of using cluster bombs in civilian areas and says such attacks could constitute war crimes.
Russia's defence ministry dismissed the report as containing "fake information" and "trite cliches".
It also rejected Amnesty's accusations about cluster bombs, Reuters reports.
Amnesty said in its report it was also researching concerns about the US-led coalition air strikes in Syria.
The US has rarely acknowledged civilian deaths in its air bombardment of the so-called Islamic State (IS), which began in September 2014, although some monitoring groups say the toll could run into hundreds."
Now admittedly, one might expect both superpowers are going to lie through their teeth about civilians being hit by bombs. The USA has always done this, always said it's doing nothing of the sort in public and in private the generals rank success by the amount of civilian dead the bombs leave behind them. And there is no surprise that civilians invariably end up targeted in what are in actual practice war crimes.
The problem is that with the USA essentially conceding Russia its major goal of saving Assad (and of course the heroic Russian Army is only bombing US proxies and hasn't yet dropped a single damned bomb on Daesh, to a point even Daesh says so:
http://www.interpretermag.com/putin-in-syria-even-isis-says-russia-is-not-bombing-isis/)
there is literally nothing to stop the Russians from blowing up as many civilians as they wish. At this point Russia's secured Crimea as a minimum gain from its invasion of Ukraine, and it's saved its proxy. Like many of Russia's petty small minded thugs in charge, Putin has zero fucks to give about what his policies do to Russia's people in terms of sanctions, while China, of course, sees a chance for some long-belated revenge on the part of the dragon against the bear in terms of basically owning Russia even more than it owns America.
I'd love to see how all the people who think war crimes are terrible expect to stop the Russians committing them. The USA will give three weeks of hand-wringing and no actual punishment for perpetrators, Russia won't even do the hand-wringing. Which is worse, crocodile tears or saying "What civilians?" even when the bodies are mutilated and burning and continuing to do precisely what other people are saying is such a terrible thing to do? As Sherman said, war is cruelty and you cannot refine it.
And it's worth noting, too, that the first instinct of Europeans after something like Paris was not to indulge in mass understanding and compassion, as Americans are chided to do whenever terrorists bomb and blow up Americans, or Turks when Kurds blow up Turkish babies, or Israelis and Palestinians when both blow up each other's babies, they immediately resorted to bombing Daesh and adding yet another complication to an already-tangled mess. There is no simple or bloodless solution to this mess. The options for such have long since passed.