Human Rights Watch, ever vigilant for abuses by America of even the most expansive definitions of what a human rights violation are, has noted that slaughtering civilians, as the Iraq Minutemen are prone to do, is a human rights violation:
Through victim and witness testimony, it documents some of the crimes committed against civilians by insurgent groups, and addresses the arguments these groups and their supporters use to justify unlawful attacks.
Whoa, guys. Insurgents are committing human rights violations? Be careful now. You are seriously threatening your Left wing donor base if you flail away at the enemy inside Iraq trying to destroy a budding democracy by murdering civilians and fighting unlawfully. Sure, admit some bad stuff is going on but don't forget who is really responsible!
Not to worry. These HRW guys don't have a death wish. Read on. The report isn't all bad news for those who view America as the worst threat to peace in the world, since the report also looks at the reasons the enemy gives for head severing and other sundry practices:
It also places insurgent abuses in context; namely, the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq and the ensuing military occupation that resulted in tens of thousands of civilian deaths and sparked the emergence of these insurgent groups. Chief among the justifications insurgent groups use is that the United States illegally invaded Iraq and has killed untold thousands of Iraqi civilians over the past two-and-a-half years.
The fundraising committee of HRW can rest easy. No harm, no foul, as they say! If the facts are uncomfortably similar to human rights violations, no problem! Context fixes all!
Never mind that complaints of our troop actions never seems to contain the context that against an enemy that violates rules of war by fighting out of uniform and by targeting civilians, the proper responsibility for accidental civilian casualties in our operations should lie with the enemy that hides among the civilians. By contrast, we are in uniform and the enemy still slaughters civilians. Can't be a mistake there.
Never mind the context of a genocidal, murdering Saddam regime as a bit of context for our invasion in the first place; or the tremendous care we took to avoid civilian casualties. Nope. No context there.
Never mind that the Baathists and jihadis were murdering and raping at full throttle before one US trooper stepped foot in Iraq. That might be some useful context.
Nope. All bad things in Iraq are America's fault. So in the end, I guess you did know after all who is responsible.
When the jihadis and Baathists strike, we get context coming out of HRW's bloody orifices.
I'll stop with that ugly and accurate imagery.
