Thread by @DavidNorthWSWS

Linda Greenfield-Thomas, US Ambassador of the UN, has accused the Russian government of a war crime, declaring that "attacks on civilians that cannot be justified by any -- in any way whatsoever." As a matter of principle, this is certainly true. And socialists cannot object. 1/

But on one condition. And that is that American presidents be held no less accountable for war crimes committed by the United States than Putin for war crimes committed by Russia. 2/ #UkraineWar

Greenfield-Thomas' statement followed the alleged Russian bombing of what is alleged to be a maternity hospital in #Mariupol. It is reported that 3 people died and 17 more people were injured. The US media shares the ambassador's outrage and calls for Putin's punishment. 3/

The Washington Post claims that the attack on the Mariupol maternity hospital is an event so uniquely horrifying that it bears comparison to the Nazi bombing of the Basque village of Guernica in 1937. 4/

The number of death caused by the bombing of Guernica are estimated to have been between 170 and 300, far greater than the 3 deaths from the shelling of the Mariupol facility. 5/

But let us consider another event that occurred during the US invasion of Iraq in the Persian Gulf War. On February 13, 1991, the US Air Force targeted two smart bombs to hit an air raid shelter in the Amiriyah suburb of Baghdad. 6/

It was known to the US Department of Defense that the Amiriyah facility had been used as a civil-defense shelter during the Iran-Iraq War in the 1980s. But the shelter was targeted despite this knowledge and the bombs were released without advance warning. 7/

About 1500 civilians - mostly women and children - were killed. According to Wikipedia, "Neighborhood residents heard screams as people tried to get out of the shelter. They screamed for four minutes. After the second bomb hit, the screaming ceased." en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amiriyah_… 8/

The account continues: "People staying in the upper level were incinerated by heat, while boiling water from the shelter's water tank was responsible for the rest of the fatalities." 9/

"Not all who died died immediately; black, incinerated handprints of some victims remain fused to the concrete ceiling of the shelter, and can still be seen today." 10/

None of the American political and military leaders responsible for the conduct of the war were held legally accountable. A lawsuit brought against President George Bush, Dick Cheney, Colin Powell and Norman Schwarzkopf was dismissed. 11/

The Amiriyah bombing is only one of innumerable bombing incidents that have claimed, in the course of the wars waged by the US over the last 30 years, several hundred thousand civilian lives. 12/

There is no statute of limitations on war crimes. So if Putin is to be sent the Hague for his crimes, Clinton, Bush, Obama, Trump and all their accomplices in US killings of civilians should join him in the dock. 13/13