US Military Tactic: Hit the Hospitals First

Let me preface this post with the following: 1) Yes, the following quoted material is obviously very biased/slanted with a socialist perspective (it is taken from a 2004 article from The Internationalist, after all), and 2) it is not meant [or at least I do not mean it to be] an anti-troop statement.

I posted this because I am interested in people’s opinions on this (supposed) US Military practice of “hitting the hospitals first.” The article suggests this is a practice perpetrated by political and military high commanders who run things and give the orders.

Do you think this is all just leftist propaganda, or do you think that bombing and raiding hospitals is a legitimate military practice?

The following is taken from HERE:

Doctors at Falluja General Hospital handcuffed and pushed to the floor when U.S. troops seize the facility, November 8


(Photo: New York Times)

“The hospital was selected as an early target because the American military believed that it was the source of rumors about heavy casualties,” when the U.S. attacked Falluja in April, wrote the New York Times (8 November). “It’s a center of propaganda,” a senior American officer said. Rumors? Propaganda? Iraq Body Count, whose tallies of Iraqi dead since the invasion have been extremely conservative, has done a detailed analysis of all available figures, concluding that out of 800-plus persons killed during the U.S.’ April attack (336 buried in Falluja’s soccer stadium), some 600 were civilians, half of them women and children. A hospital is a place where civilian casualties could receive treatment. But according to the U.S. military spokesmen, there were “no civilian casualties,” so no hospital was needed. Likewise, a hospital is a place where injured Iraqi insurgents might be treated. But the objective of the assault on Falluja was to kill the insurgents, every last one, so again, no hospital was needed. The Fourth Geneva Convention on Warfare declares in no uncertain terms, “Civilian hospitals organized to give care to the wounded and sick, the infirm and maternity cases, may in no circumstances be the object of attack but shall at all times be respected and protected by the Parties to the conflict.” That was written in 1949, after World War II. The Geneva Conventions also outlaw practices like torture of prisoners. But according to the White House legal counsel, Alberto Gonzales, now promoted to Attorney General of the United States, the strictures of the Geneva Convention are outdated and “quaint.”

So doubtless after careful study by the Center for Army Lessons Learned at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, the Pentagon’s first rule in its terrorist “war on terror” is now: hit the hospitals first. There are to be no statistics about women and children killed, no pictures of maimed bodies, no medical care for the insurgent or civilian wounded. The “born again” Christian George W. Bush goes by the mercenary motto, “Kill ’em all and let god sort ’em out.” But it isn’t just Republican Bush. In the 1999 war on Yugoslavia, by Democrat Bill Clinton, the U.S. deliberately bombed the Belgrade maternity hospital, all the while cynically claiming that no hospital was on the target list. (They also targeted the Chinese embassy, to teach Beijing a lesson, lamely claiming they got the address mixed up with a military warehouse.) In short, the political and military commanders of the United States are rabid mass murderers and torturers, and conscious war criminals to boot. U.S. imperialism with its mad dog leadership is, by far, the greatest threat to humanity today. The colonial occupation of Iraq (and Afghanistan) must be defeated, and the imperialist system smashed through world socialist revolution.

As an aside, Noam Chomsky has the following to say about “The Conquest of the Falluja General Hospital” on his new spoken word CD put out by AK PRESS:

"In early November, the New York Times featured a front-page story reporting the conquest of the Falluja General Hospital. It reported, 'Patients and hospital employees were rushed out of rooms by armed soldiers and ordered to sit or lie on the floor while troops tied their hands behind their backs.' An accompanying photograph depicted the scene. That offensive also shut down what officers said was a propaganda weapon for the militants: Falluja General Hospital, with its stream of reports of civilian casualties. These 'inflated' figures--'inflated' because our leader so declares--were inflaming public opinion throughout the country and the region, driving up the political costs of the conflict.”

"Let's go back to the New York Times picture and story about the closing of the 'propaganda' weapon. There are relevant documents, including the Geneva Conventions, which state: 'Fixed establishments and mobile medical units of the Medical Service may in no circumstances be attacked, but shall at all times be respected and protected by the Parties to the conflict.' So page one of the world's leading newspaper is cheerfully depicting war crimes for which the political leadership could be sentenced to death under U.S. law."

Noam Chomsky is “a world-renowned linguist, lecturer, and critic of U.S. policy and authoritarian structures. He is the author of more than 100 books and ten spoken word CDs.” The CD was recorded in November 2004, just after the reelection of George W. Bush.