“ISIS continues to brutally kill civilians and exacerbate war crimes to astonishing new levels yet the hypocritical media blatantly continues to ignore this facet and instead condemns America for their brutality.”
Civilian casualties have been mounting in the City of Mosul as a result of the ongoing war with ISIS and its dense civilian population. Describing the ruins of what used to be a prosperous city and a dramatic battle is newsworthy. But the focus of the media results in a blatant double standard as civil rights groups attack American airstrikes, but fail to condemn the war crimes of terrorists that led to the battle in the first place.
Mosul is the second largest city in Iraq and since 2014 has been the scene of horrific atrocities and heavy handed ISIS rule. ISIS regularly sells sex slaves and distributes beatings to those that refuse to follow their strict rule. They frequently extort Christians and minorities or force them to flee. There is moral justification for recapturing Mosul.
But the average reader wouldn’t see that from the way that international groups attack and condemn America. Airwars, a nonprofit group keeps track of unverified numbers of civilian casualties. These numbers are then used to condemn American military operations. According to Amnesty International, “Disproportionate attacks and indiscriminate attacks violate international humanitarian law and can constitute war crimes.” These groups focus on American sins and mistakes, but seem far less concerned with ISIS tactics that are demonstrably war crimes.
US commanders on the ground have video of ISIS forces herding civilians into a building, killing those that resisted, and then fighting coalition forces from the same building. The use of human shields is a war crime by those using the shields as long as the attacking force reasonably tries to prevent civilian casualties. But videos of the wounded screaming for help and dead bodies of women and children are most often used by self-loathing or anti-Western media to attack America. The human drama of a video tape overshadows the nuances of international law.
The US already has stringent verification mechanisms to prevent the unnecessary loss of human life. For example, local commanders have field expedient means to assess the risks to civilians and any strikes of hospitals or schools must be approved by higher chains of command. But given the dense terrain, ISIS tactics, and the demands of war, it’s difficult to prevent any and all civilian deaths and those that unfortunately occur will always be used to club America’s moral position.
Any death is tragic, but all are not necessarily crimes. Especially when one side is trying to follow the rules of war and the other side refuses. ISIS does not wear uniforms, does not follow the Geneva Convention (such as discriminating between civilian and military targets), and continues to deliberately place civilians in harm’s way. The other side wears a uniform, follows the rules of war in the treatment of prisoners and combatants, and discriminates as much as possible between civilian and military targets. Yet from reading the hand wringing of the biased press, you would think America is an out of control nation, and “vomit” at the thought of praising soldiers.
The cost to retake Mosul has been high for Iraqi soldiers and civilians alike however, it has occurred with a professional and admirable concern for civilian life. In complete contrast, ISIS continues to brutally kill civilians and exacerbate war crimes to astonishing new levels yet the hypocritical media blatantly continues to ignore this facet and instead condemns America for their brutality.
Morgan Deane is an OpsLens Contributor and a former U.S. Marine Corps infantry rifleman. Deane also served in the National Guard as an Intelligence Analyst.
