US attack on MSF deliberate war crime: Rodney Shakespeare

Press TV has interviewed Rodney Shakespeare, a political commentator in London, about the US military not filing any criminal charges against a dozen of its service members for a deadly airstrike on a charity hospital in Afghanistan last year.

The following is a rough transcription of the interview.

Press TV: Things like letters of reprimand being given for the killing of 42 people at a hospital in Afghanistan: what do you make of that?

Shakespeare: Forty-two people killed, over 40 grievously wounded: this is a war crime. The coordinates of the hospital were given, but when you give the Americans coordinates of a hospital or a school or United Nations, and the same with the Israelis, you must guarantee that they will in fact attack it. In this case the helicopter gunship kept going round attacking and attacking, and they knew they were attacking a hospital because they protested back to their controllers that they were attacking a hospital, but the controllers with their racist mindset, which says they can do what they like and no one can ever touch them, said carry on, attack this civilian hospital; and even if there had been a Pakistani somewhere in the grounds, you do not try and wipe out a whole hospital time and time again.

This is deliberate war crime, a slap on the wrist at the worst is what those responsible have been given for it and the evidence is clear the crew knew they were doing wrong.

Press TV: It turns out that the Pentagon is holding its own investigation the results of which hopefully will be announced soon. What do you think that will hold?

Shakespeare: The Pentagon is not going to do any investigation. They will be holding back the culprit … and it is like the plane which was blown up over Ukraine, the radar and all the rest of it. The Americans hold back the key evidence because it would go against their position, which is basically that they can do what they like, and the same with the Israelis. This is ultimately a racist arrogance which says that we get involved and we attack and we do not … the consequences and they are hypocrites who even claim that there would be any sort of proper investigation. There won’t be and there never will be.

Press TV: As you just also pointed out that this case by itself is not an isolated incident, it sort of marks the US occupation of Afghanistan from the onset where civilians have fallen victim to US drone strikes and military operations. However, after all these years of US involvement in Afghanistan and these killings with the number of civilians being killed mounting, it is interesting to note that there is no international mechanism to hold the US accountable for it?

Shakespeare: No there is no investigation and it is no coincidence that this sort of incident is always the USA and Israel. They are hand in glove - oh with Saudi Arabia – in what is basically an attempt to smash up Muslims genuinely and to smash up independent nations, and like the Saudis they do not care how much is killing and nor do the Israelis. The whole thing is disgraced. Decent people of the West where I am at this moment, we must stand up and hold our governments to account and to say we won’t stand for anymore.

Press TV: Doctors Without Borders of course is not taking this sitting down, up until now when the US said that the airstrike was a result of human error, the group rejected that claim. How far do you think Doctors Without Borders can take this?

Shakespeare: First of all the USA kept changing its story right the way through, they were lying, and they cannot play with this human error because in fact the pilots of the gunship doing the bombing and the attacking, they in fact objected to doing this.

I do not doubt whether the USA will be able to be taken to The Hague on this, that is the trouble with the USA and Israel, they do what they like but ultimately the court of international public opinion, and I am not talking about the Americans and their cronies, and … there are people coming through Press TV ... saying we are going to hold you responsible because you are monsters and you are hand in hand with Daesh, you go around destroying people all the time and behind it of course is you are playing the Zionist racist line.

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