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Robert Fisk: We are the war criminals now

'Everything we have believed in since the Second World War goes by the board=
=20
as we=20
pursue our
own exclusive war'

29 November 2001

We are becoming war criminals in Afghanistan. The US Air Force bombs=20
Mazar-i-Sharif=20
for the Northern Alliance, and our heroic Afghan allies =E2=80=93 who slaugh=
tered
50,000 people in Kabul between 1992 and 1996 =E2=80=93 move into the city an=
d execute=20
up to 300=20
Taliban fighters. The report is a footnote on the television satellite=20
channels, a
"nib" in journalistic parlance. Perfectly normal, it seems. The Afghans have=
=20
a "tradition" of=20
revenge. So, with the strategic assistance of the USAF, a war crime is
committed.

Now we have the Mazar-i-Sharif prison "revolt", in which Taliban inmates=20
opened fire on=20
their Alliance jailers. US Special Forces =E2=80=93 and, it has emerged, Bri=
tish=20
troops =E2=80=93
helped the Alliance to overcome the uprising and, sure enough, CNN tells us=20
some=20
prisoners were "executed" trying to escape. It is an atrocity. British troop=
s=20
are now
stained with war crimes. Within days, The Independent's Justin Huggler has=20
found more=20
executed Taliban members in Kunduz.

The Americans have even less excuse for this massacre. For the US Secretary=20
of Defence,=20
Donald Rumsfeld, stated quite specifically during the siege of the city that=
=20
US
air raids on the Taliban defenders would stop "if the Northern Alliance=20
requested it".=20
Leaving aside the revelation that the thugs and murderers of the Northern=20
Alliance
were now acting as air controllers to the USAF in its battle with the thugs=20
and murderers of=20
the Taliban, Mr Rumsfeld's incriminating remark places Washington in the
witness box of any war-crimes trial over Kunduz. The US were acting in full=20
military=20
co-operation with the Northern Alliance militia.

Most television journalists, to their shame, have shown little or no interes=
t=20
in these=20
disgraceful crimes. Cosying up to the Northern Alliance, chatting to the=20
American
troops, most have done little more than mention the war crimes against=20
prisoners in the=20
midst of their reports. What on earth has gone wrong with our moral compass
since 11 September?

Perhaps I can suggest an answer. After both the First and Second World Wars,=
=20
we =E2=80=93 the=20
"West" =E2=80=93 grew a forest of legislation to prevent further war crimes.=
 The very
first Anglo-French-Russian attempt to formulate such laws was provoked by th=
e=20
Armenian=20
Holocaust at the hands of the Turks in 1915; The Entente said it would hold
personally responsible "all members of the (Turkish) Ottoman government and=20
those of=20
their agents who are implicated in such massacres". After the Jewish Holocau=
st
and the collapse of Germany in 1945, article 6 (C) of the Nuremberg Charter=20
and the=20
Preamble of the UN Convention on genocide referred to "crimes against=20
humanity".
Each new post-1945 war produced a raft of legislation and the creation of=20
evermore human=20
rights groups to lobby the world on liberal, humanistic Western values.

Over the past 50 years, we sat on our moral pedestal and lectured the Chines=
e=20
and the=20
Soviets, the Arabs and the Africans, about human rights. We pronounced on th=
e
human-rights crimes of Bosnians and Croatians and Serbs. We put many of them=
=20
in the=20
dock, just as we did the Nazis at Nuremberg. Thousands of dossiers were
produced, describing =E2=80=93 in nauseous detail =E2=80=93 the secret court=
s and death=20
squads and torture=20
and extra judicial executions carried out by rogue states and pathological
dictators. Quite right too.

Yet suddenly, after 11 September, we went mad. We bombed Afghan villages int=
o=20
rubble,=20
along with their inhabitants =E2=80=93 blaming the insane Taliban and Osama=20=
bin Laden
for our slaughter =E2=80=93 and now we have allowed our gruesome militia all=
ies to=20
execute their=20
prisoners. President George Bush has signed into law a set of secret militar=
y
courts to try and then liquidate anyone believed to be a "terrorist murderer=
"=20
in the eyes of=20
America's awesomely inefficient intelligence services. And make no mistake
about it, we are talking here about legally sanctioned American government=20
death squads.=20
They have been created, of course, so that Osama bin Laden and his men
should they be caught rather than killed, will have no public defence; just=20=
a=20
pseudo trial and=20
a firing squad.

It's quite clear what has happened. When people with yellow or black or=20
brownish skin,=20
with Communist or Islamic or Nationalist credentials, murder their prisoners=
=20
or
carpet bomb villages to kill their enemies or set up death squad courts, the=
y=20
must be=20
condemned by the United States, the European Union, the United Nations and t=
he
"civilised" world. We are the masters of human rights, the Liberals, the=20
great and good who=20
can preach to the impoverished masses. But when our people are murdered
=E2=80=93 when our glittering buildings are destroyed =E2=80=93 then we tear=
 up every piece=20
of human rights=20
legislation, send off the B-52s in the direction of the impoverished masses
and set out to murder our enemies.

Winston Churchill took the Bush view of his enemies. In 1945, he preferred=20
the=20
straightforward execution of the Nazi leadership. Yet despite the fact that=20
Hitler's
monsters were responsible for at least 50 million deaths =E2=80=93 10,000 ti=
mes=20
greater than the=20
victims of 11 September =E2=80=93 the Nazi murderers were given a trial at N=
uremberg
because US President Truman made a remarkable decision. "Undiscriminating=20
executions=20
or punishments," he said, "without definite findings of guilt fairly arrived=
=20
at,
would not fit easily on the American conscience or be remembered by our=20
children with=20
pride."

No one should be surprised that Mr Bush =E2=80=93 a small-time Texas=20
Governor-Executioner =E2=80=93=20
should fail to understand the morality of a statesman in the Whitehouse. Wha=
t=20
is
so shocking is that the Blairs, Schr=C3=B6ders, Chiracs and all the televisi=
on=20
boys should have=20
remained so gutlessly silent in the face of the Afghan executions and East
European-style legislation sanctified since 11 September.

There are ghostly shadows around to remind us of the consequences of state=20
murder. In=20
France, a general goes on trial after admitting to torture and murder in the
1954-62 Algerian war, because he referred to his deeds as "justifiable acts=20
of duty=20
performed without pleasure or remorse". And in Brussels, a judge will decide=
=20
if the
Israeli Prime Minister, Arial Sharon, can be prosecuted for his "personal=20
responsibility" for=20
the 1982 massacre in Sabra and Chatila.

Yes, I know the Taliban were a cruel bunch of bastards. They committed most=20
of their=20
massacres outside Mazar-i-Sharif in the late 1990s. They executed women in t=
he
Kabul football stadium. And yes, lets remember that 11 September was a crime=
=20
against=20
humanity.

But I have a problem with all this. George Bush says that "you are either fo=
r=20
us or against=20
us" in the war for civilisation against evil. Well, I'm sure not for bin=20
Laden.
But I'm not for Bush. I'm actively against the brutal, cynical, lying "war o=
f=20
civilisation"=20
that he has begun so mendaciously in our name and which has now cost as many
lives as the World Trade Centre mass murder.

At this moment, I can't help remembering my dad. He was old enough to have=20
fought in the=20
First World War. In the third Battle of Arras. And as great age overwhelmed
him near the end of the century, he raged against the waste and murder of th=
e=20
1914-1918=20
war. When he died in 1992, I inherited the campaign medal of which he was
once so proud, proof that he had survived a war he had come to hate and=20
loathe and=20
despise. On the back, it says: "The Great War for Civilisation." Maybe I=20
should send
it to George Bush.=20

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Robert Fisk: We are the war criminals now

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