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Russian War Crimes In Chechnya: Where’s the Outrage?
The entire world has focused their attention on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The slightest perceived human rights violations by the U.S. are broadcast around the world and met with international condemnation. However, what the world has failed to notice or condemn are the very real war crimes taking place in Chechnya.
Russia has been slaughtering civilians there for years with impunity. Russian aircraft routinely carpet bomb villages killing hundreds of men, women, and children. Russia also uses Chechnya as a testing ground for new weapon systems.
Russia’s poorly trained, poorly equipped, and poorly led Army, commits every atrocity imaginable on a daily basis. Robbery, murder, rape, looting, torture, and kidnapping, are just a few of the things Russia’s Army is known for. Civilians there claim that Russian soldiers often kidnap Chechen citizens and hold them for ransom. If the family is unable to pay, the soldiers simply murder the person and dump their body. Soldiers in Chechnya are usually extremely intoxicated which leads to frequent suicides and accidental deaths as well.
The atrocities taking place in Chechnya are almost beyond belief, yet rarely does the international community even acknowledge that a war is even taking place there.
If human rights organizations are really serious about human rights then they should stop worrying about detainees in Gitmo and start worrying about the wholesale slaughter of civilians in Chechnya.
The extent to which Russia has devastated Chechnya can best be summed up in two photographs.
Photos of Chechnya’s capital Grozny:
You can also watch an excellent documentary about Russian atrocities in Chechnya HERE.
Blackwater: Fallujah Deaths Unavoidable
Heavier guns and sturdier trucks would not have saved a team of Blackwater USA guards brutally killed in March 2004 after being lured by corrupt Iraqi forces into a well-planned ambush, the embattled private security contractor contends in a report to Congress.
This conclusion sharply contradicts the findings of a congressional investigation led by House Democrats and a wrongful death lawsuit filed by the families of the four slain guards. Blackwater is cast in both as an incompetent, penny-pinching outfit that sent an undermanned and poorly equipped detail through Fallujah, a known insurgent stronghold 40 miles west of Baghdad.
While calling the deaths “a tragic event,” Blackwater says the incident was unavoidable and the guards—former Navy SEALs and Army Rangers—understood the risks of their mission and could have refused to go.
While Blackwater may not be perfect, they’re still the best Private Military Contractor in the world. Any clear thinking person can see that the vilification of Blackwater is 100% pure Washington politics.
Blackwater was hired to keep Diplomats alive as they go about their business in Iraq. To this day not a single Diplomat has been injured or killed while under the protection of Blackwater. Ironically, many of the Democrats who call Blackwater contractors “cowboys” and “criminals” neglected to mention those feelings while they were being guarded by them.
There’s no doubt that civilians have been killed in Iraq by both Blackwater and the U.S. military. As tragic as that is, Iraq is a war zone and that sometimes happens in war zones. While the safety of Iraqi civilians is important, the safety of our personnel is even more important. I don’t expect a Blackwater contractor to wait until he gets shot, before shooting back.
The media coverage of Blackwater has been grossly inaccurate and completely ridiculous. Smearing Blackwater is just another way for the chicken shit liberals in the media and the Congress to try and damage the Bush administration.
When visiting Iraq in the future, I’m calling on Democrats to stand on their principles and refuse Blackwater protection. To accept protection from a bunch of lawless mercenaries might appear to some as a de facto endorsement of that companies criminal activities.
-Chris Jones
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