Assange, US War Crimes and the IDF in Gaza

It would appear that today’s ruling in the British High Court that Julian Assange can appeal his extradition from the UK to the USA has nothing to do with the current war in Gaza. But it does. Here’s the connection, when Julian Assange published millions of data in Wikileaks from secret sources within the US Defense Department, he exposed the fact that they had information about war crimes by US forces in Iraq and Afghanistan. He published videos of US helicopters and US forces shooting Iraqi and Afghani civilians, clear cases of war crimes, that they kept secret. For his efforts he was forced to flee from the US, and for 7 years he took refuge in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, until he was expelled and arrested by British police and has been held in prison in London for another 5 years.

Clearly the US did not want the public to know about war crimes carried out by their forces in their military actions against Saddam Hussein and Islamist organizations, Islamic State (ISIS) in Iraq and Syria and Al Qaeda in Afghanistan.. Minimum estimates of civilians killed by US forces in Iraq are 100,000 and in Afghanistan ca. 70,000. Yet the US is now punishing Israel because of civilian casualties caused or anticipated in the IDF’s war against Hamas in Gaza, a war that Hamas initiated by a surprise massacre of over 1,200 Israelis (including Muslims, Thais and Filipinos) and the taking of 252 hostages.

The IDF is known as the most moral army in the world, not only did they make thousands of phone calls and drop tens of thousands of leaflets to civilians to warn them to leave areas of conflict, but they established humanitarian corridors and safe areas for them to remain in. The US should take lessons from the IDF. Its true that Israel insists on checking all aid going into Gaza for military equipment, but this is an elementary precaution. Unfortunately, the UN that has been primarily responsible for distribution of the aid inside Gaza, has cooperated with Hamas in hijacking the aid, and much of it never reaches the civilians it is intended for, but instead is being sold in the black market in Gaza.

Furthermore, while the Hamas Ministry of Health estimates over 30,000 civilian casualties, they do not report any Hamas casualties. The IDF now estimates that it has killed or put out of action ca. 13,000 out of the total of ca. 30,000 fighters that Hamas is estimated to have had at the start of the war. If we take the certainly exaggerated figure of 30,000 total casualties in Gaza and subtract the Hamas fighters, that leaves a maximum of 17,000 civilian deaths. A large number, but small in comparison with the number of civilians murdered by US forces. Let those who demonstrate against Israel for humanitarian reasons and who, like President Biden preach humanitarian issues to Israel, put their own house in order before criticizing others for lesser deeds.