Jules Crittenden asks, “is it a war crime?” (via Instapundit)
It’s a small incident in the grand scheme of things. Another Navy corpsman doing his job, working on the wounded, sometimes under fire, and dying in combat as thousands have before him have in the Pacific, in Korea, in Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan. I don’t know if it’s happened quite like that recently, shot dead while applying bandages to a wounded man. Maybe there will be a decoration, something to be presented to his parents to let them know his nation is grateful he did his duty and tended to a wounded Marine under fire, without regard for his own safety. Meanwhile, it’s a heart-rending tableau to imagine, the bandage wrappings and medical gear strewn about the bodies. I stared at the screen for a while and had to compose myself when I worked on the wire copy on deadline tonight.
Sounds like a war crime.
In the case of Israelis though, since the ICRC won’t give protection to the Mogen David Adom, it’s not a war crime. So killing Yochai Porat wasn’t a war crime.
Sgt.-Maj.(res.) Yochai Porat, who was on reserve army duty as a medic, was killed while trying to help his wounded comrades. Yochai was coordinator of the Jewish Agency’s Foreign Volunteers Program, which is jointly run with Magen David Adom. The foreign volunteer program took on new impetus after Yochai became its coordinator. In this capacity, just a week ago he met Senator Hillary Clinton during her visit to Israel, and was excited to take a picture with her during the presentation of diplomas for volunteers from abroad.
Kiling Shmuel Akiva Weiss – a medic who was going to tend to Matanya Robinson wasn’t a war crime.
Because Israeli army medics aren’t afforded the same international protections granted every other mecical corps due to Islamic intolerance, the killings of Yochai Porat and Shmuel Weiss weren’t war crimes. They were evidence of antisemitism and its acceptability on the international scene.
Crossposted on Yourish.
It does not matter whether the IDF uses the red Magen David, or a red croos, or even a red star and crescent. It would not be a war crime to kill an IDF medic because they have defined membership in the IDF as a capital crime so death is just the “proper punishment”. A medic is even more of a “war criminal” because he is attempting to save the life of a “condemned criminal” which in and of itself is a capital offense.
Besides, they are all Joooos anyway and therefore should be killed.
One of the American troops killed early in the Afghanistan Campaign, in March 2002, was a Navy SEAL who fell out of a damaged helicopter taking off under fire, ABH1 Neil Roberts. I remember reading that some Afghans seized him and immediately cut his throat.
The jihadists often do things that are reminiscent of human sacrifice. Those beheading videos come to mind, with some poor captive having his head sawn off by a sadistic clown, with a bunch of masked lunatics capering in the background shouting “Allahu akhbar”. In the case of the Roberts, it reminded me of the actions of Phoenecians at the Battle of Artemesium (which was fought at the same time as Thermopylae) in 480 BCE, as described by Herodotus in his book “The Histories”. On the first Greek galley captured the Phoenecian captors dragged the best fighter among the Greek marines to the bow and cut his throat over the water, as a first fruits offering to their god.
I will not indiscriminately condemn all Muslims for the actions of our enemies, but our enemies and their sympathizers among the Muslims are utter barbarian scum.