WAR CRIMES

If Israel committed war crimes by bombing Gaza, then the US committed war crimes with the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki

By Howie Katz

Israel and Hamas controlled Gaza have fought wars in 2008-2009, 2012 and 2014, resulting in the deaths of almost 100 Israeli soldiers and civilians and that of more than 3,000 Palestinians.  In those wars, the Israelis, in order to minimize civilian casualties, gave notice to Gaza's civilians about which targets they planned to bomb.  Since 2014, Hamas and Islamic Jihad have daily fired rockets at Israel.  The Israelis respond to the rocket attacks by bombing rocket launcher implacements in Gaza.

Hamas and Islamic Jihad place their rockets and rocket launchers in school yards, on hospital grounds and in crowded civilian locations.  Because of that, the Israeli retaliatory bombings have resulted in civilian casualties, including those of little children.  

 

Smoke and fire from an Israeli strike rise over Gaza City. 

The Europeans have condemned the Israeli bombings.  The Palestinians have gone to the International Criminal Court (ICC) in the Hague and charged Israel with committing war crimes.  And it looks like the ICC will investigate Israel's leaders and military of committing war crimes.

If Israel committed war crimes by bombing Gaza, then the US committed war crimes with the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and the fire bombing of Tokyo during WW2.  The two atomic bombs killed over 200,000 civilians and more than 100,00 were killed in Tokyo by the incendiary bombs, making the bombing of Tokyo the deadliest bombing raid in history.

 

Tokyo after the firebombing

The atomic bomb mushroom clouds over Hiroshima (left) and Nagasaki (right)

Hiroshima after the A bomb

 

        Nagasaki after the A bomb

 

And the Allies  committed war crimes by leveling the German cities of Hamburg, Berlin and Dresden, among others, with 49,000 civilians killed in Hamburg, 35,000 in Berlin and 20,000 in Dresden.

 

Dresden after the bombing

 

The bombings of Japanese and German cities were designed to kill as many civilians as possible so as to demoralize the Japanese and Germans.

So if Israel is going to be investigated for committing war crimes by unintentionally killing civilians, then it stands to reason that the US should be investigated for war crimes against Japan by intentionally killing its civilians and the Allies, particularly the US and Britain, for war crimes against Germany by intentionally killing its civilians. 

I am elated that we dropped those atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.  Had we not done that, there was a good chance that I and many thousands of other American soldiers would have been killed during the invasion of Japan.

And I'm not troubled by the death toll of civilians in Tokyo, Hiroshima and Nagasaki.  After all, the Japanese military slaughtered more than six million Chinese, Korean, Malaysian, Indonesian, Filipino and Indochinese civilians.  The Japanese Army massacred as many as 300,000 civilians in Nanking, China and they murdered many thousands of POWs, including captured American soldiers.