- #31
Njorl
Science Advisor
- 265
- 16
Originally posted by Bystander
You indicted Nixon for the Xmas bombing in one post, and in the following cite Geneva regarding the location of military targets in civilian areas; the assignation of risk to civilians in Hanoi was an act of the NV govt. --- end of U.S. culpability for collateral damage. Need I directly call you hypocritical in your application of Geneva conventions? Which I am not, I am asking you to re-examine the information you have presented, and to acknowledge that you have opined re. Nixon without a full application of the information you had available.
Quartering troops within a city, or having factories that produce military materiel within a city is not considered an attempt to make them invulnerable to attack. That would require somethink like barracksing troops in residential homes, or building munitions factories contiguous to hospitals.
The bombing of Hanoi was not directed at specific targets. It was directed at the city as a whole. This is specifically banned by the Geneva convention. You may target factories or barracks, and many of your bombs may miss and kill civilians. That is not a violation. But bombing a city in general, in the hopes of destroying factories or randomly killing soldiers has been a warcrime since 1947. Hanoi was perpetually fogged in at that time of the year. There were no GPS guided bombs.
I had stated, "It is considered a violation to...Target a civilian area for indiscriminate attack because it has legal targets within it."
Njorl