US Rape of Raqqa Revisited
by Stephen Lendman (stephenlendman.org - Home - Stephen Lendman)
Raqqa was raped and destroyed, not liberated as falsely claimed.
Months of US-led terror-bombing turned most of the city to rubble - on the phony pretext of combating ISIS Washington supports.
Life is Raqqa was normal before Obama launched war on Syria. Today there’s rubble everywhere, countless numbers of rotting corpses beneath it.
Like Mosul, Fallujah, Aleppo, along with other cities and towns US terror-bombing destroyed, Raqqa bears testimony to US imperial viciousness - a thriving metropolis turned into a wasteland.
Strategic self-defense bombing involves destroying an adversary’s economic and military ability to wage war - targeting its warmaking capacity and related infrastructure.
Terror-bombing is entirely different, aiming to cause mass casualties and destruction. Geneva and other international laws forbid targeting civilians.
Fourth Geneva protects them in times of war - prohibiting violence against them, treatment for the sick and wounded required.
Nuremberg Principles prohibit “crimes against peace, war crimes and crimes against humanity.”
They include “inhumane acts committed against any civilian populations, before or during the war.”
Indiscriminate killing, along with “wanton destruction of cities, towns, or villages, or devastation not justified by military necessity” is absolutely prohibited.
US wars of aggression breach these laws unaccountably, culpable officials never punished, including congressional members, guilty of authorizing funding for mass slaughter and destruction.
Raqqa survivors lost everything, largely from US-led terror-bombing, turning the city into a desolate graveyard, thousands, maybe tens of thousands, of civilians massacred - one of history’s great crimes.
US-led terror-bombing raged from early June through late October 2017 (four-and-a-half months of relentless hell), destroying or badly damaging virtually every structure in the city.
“The Pentagon relocated most ISIS terrorists to other parts of the country, letting them escape the carnage, using them to commit more atrocities.
Revisiting what happened, RT International falsely called US-led terror-bombing “liberation from ISIS by US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces” comprised of anti-government terrorists, RT failed to explain.
It said Washington intends providing no funds for reconstruction, adding:
Months after “what was hailed as a liberation, Raqqa still looks more like a battlefield rather than a living city.”
“Entire residential compounds have been reduced to rubble. Numerous residential buildings have sustained irreparable damage or been rendered uninhabitable.”
“The streets of the city, which are surrounded by the ruins of what were once residential districts, are still filled with debris.”
A city resident/survivor identified as Khawla said “(w)e are living (in) a tragedy amongst destruction” everywhere, adding:
“There is no electricity, no water, no telephone, no mobile service, (n)o markets and shops,” no medical facilities, nothing but desolation and despair.
Another resident said “(w)e got rid of (ISIS), but our houses were flattened to the ground. Look at the destruction around you. It is a ghost-city.”
Washington bears full responsibility for what happened - in Raqqa and throughout Syria, a similar pattern in all its war theaters.
Wherever US forces show up, mass slaughter, destruction and human misery follow - Nuremberg-level high crimes, accountability never forthcoming.
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