MillenniumPost
Editorial

Death trap

Civilian casualties and wanton destruction of critical infrastructure often make up the worst of any conflict. In this regard, the United States military is one of the worst offenders. In yet another instance of the horrors that has befallen the war-torn nation of Syria, US-led coalition air strikes on Thursday killed at least 35 civilians in the oil-rich province of Deir Ezzor, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. Observers on the ground have reported that at least 26 among the dead were relatives of the Islamic State group's fighters, many of them women and children from Syria and Morocco.


Among the rest, five of the dead were children. In Iraq, meanwhile, a US military investigation has revealed that more than 100 civilians were killed in a US air strike on a building in the Iraqi city of Mosul in March during operations against IS militants. During the US Presidential election campaign, Trump spoke of how he would kill the family members of suspected terrorists despite a broad consensus that such acts constitute a war crime.


A couple of years ago, Wikileaks had released a cache of emails from Hillary Clinton, acknowledging that both Washington and US-backed regimes in Saudi Arabia and Qatar have supported the rise of transnational terror groups like the Islamic State. Amidst all his conflicting messages on America's approach to the Middle East,


Trump had promised to extricate his country from the destructive conflicts in the region with a focus on 'America first'. However, these promises have fallen by the wayside in the aftermath of recent US-led airstrikes against Syrian government forces. For countries that have suffered years of brutal civil war (Iraq and Syria), the scope for "greater dangers" emanating from Trump administration's misguided policy is frightening. Washington has also either backed rebel forces involved in gross human rights violations or has been directly responsible for acts that have resulted in the killing of innocent civilians. It has consistently refused to apologise or make reparations. One of the enduring tragedies of this civil war has been the utter failure of the international community.

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