The used car salesman strikes again

[Divernan]

274. You fail to show respect for the Rule of Law, Ma'am or Sir.

Commenting as a retired lawyer/law professor who has studied and taught international law in both the US and the EU, I'm aware of no legal code at any level of government which exempts elected officials, let alone military personnel or private contractors from prosecution. I'm amazed that you, labeling yourself as "magistrate", which according to modern usage implies you are a municipal level judge, write in reference to Iraq, "if real crimes were committed." And of course Obama's presidency has continued and expanded international drone strikes, i.e, judge, jury & executioner - even on US citizens; and assassination squads, such as the one which disposed of Osama Bin Laden. There is typically cultural resistance, denial and rationalization of war crimes, ex post facto. None of those change the fact that war crimes were committed. One hopes for national leaders to step up, admit fault, dole out appropriate punishments and let the healing begin. Such leaders thus earn the right to call out other countries on illegal actions.

Re Rule of Law, I refer specifically to IHL (International Humanitarian Law) as embodied in the Hague Conventions of 1899 and 1907; the 1945 Charter of the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg and the 1949 Geneva Conventions, which codified IHL after World War II and marked the first specific inclusion in a humanitarian law treaty of a set of war crimes, i.e., the "grave breaches" of the conventions.

Each of the four Geneva Conventions (on wounded and sick on land, wounded and sick at sea, prisoners of war, and civilians) contains its own list of grave breaches. The list in its totality is: willful killing; torture or inhuman treatment (including medical experiments); willfully causing great suffering or serious injury to body or health; extensive destruction and appropriation of property not justified by military necessity and carried out unlawfully and wantonly; compelling a prisoner of war or civilian to serve in the forces of the hostile power; willfully depriving a prisoner of war or protected civilian of the rights of a fair and regular trial; unlawful deportation or transfer of a protected civilian; unlawful confinement of a protected civilian; and taking of hostages. Additional Protocol I of 1977 expanded the protections of the Geneva Conventions for international conflicts to include as grave breaches: certain medical experimentation; making civilians and nondefended localities the object or inevitable victims of attack; the perfidious use of the Red Cross or Red Crescent emblem; transfer of an occupying power of parts of its population to occupied territory; unjustifiable delays in repatriation of POWs; apartheid; attack on historic monuments; and depriving protected persons of a fair trial. Under the Geneva Conventions and Additional Protocol I, States must prosecute persons accused of grave breaches or hand them over to a State willing to do so. -

See more at: http://www.crimesofwar.org/a-z-guide/war-crimes-categories-of/#sthash.W0OHnowG.dpuf