Tag Archives: war crimes

crime news

Put Putin on trial!

Vladimir Putin needs to be tried for war crimes against civilians in Ukraine … of that I am utterly certain.

The Russian goon/thug/strongman/despot/tyrant has stooped to even lower lows than I thought possible.

His military is now targeting heating infrastructure in Ukraine as the temperatures start to plummet to below-zero temperatures. Who suffers from such hideous attacks? Women, children, elderly people.

Russian propagandists insist they are targeting military operations. Bullsh**! Their aim is to bring the civilian population to its knees. It’s the only target left, given that the Ukrainian military machine is making mincemeat on the battlefield of what once was considered an invincible Russian army.

Putin is now turning his weaponry on civilians. Thus, he needs to stand trial. In absentia if need be.

There is plenty of precedent for putting war criminals on trial in absentia. The International Court needs to step in –and step up — to do its job by holding this Russian despot accountable for his obvious crimes against humanity.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

International news, military news

Ukrainians expose Russian myth

Many of us outsiders never really saw this coming, that the Ukrainian armed forces would expose Russia’s once-vaunted military machine to be a third-rate fighting force.

It has occurred.

Now, to be sure, I did once assert as war loomed more likely between Ukraine and Russia that the Ukrainians weren’t “defenseless.” The now-sovereign nation once was part of the Soviet Union and, thus, benefited somewhat from its exposure to the Red Army’s legendary battlefield prowess.

The USSR is gone. What is left is a country, the Russian Federation, that comprises roughly half of its former population. It does maintain a significant nuclear force.

What we’re seeing played out on the field of battle in Ukraine is a case of a nation fighting desperately — and effectively — to preserve its independence while its opponent is suffering from a lack of morale, incompetent battlefield leadership and a national leader who has become a pariah among world leaders because he launched an illegal and immoral war.

What’s more, the Russians have committed war crimes with their indiscriminate attacks on women, children and other “soft targets.”

I don’t expect Russia to surrender to Ukraine. I am now beginning to believe the reports that Russian goon Vladimir Putin might be exploring a possible face-saving way to end this conflict.

Do I believe he will use tactical nukes on Ukraine? No. He knows the consequences would be catastrophic. Indeed, President Biden has dropped broad hints that the allied response to any such act of madness could produce even more economic pain on the Russians than they ever imagined.

The course of this war has simply blown my mind. It has produced at least a glimmer of hope that battlefield incompetence will succumb to a nation’s will to survive.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

International news, military news

Ukraine moves toward victory

I once posited on this blog that I didn’t believe Ukraine would be able to declare a battlefield victory against the rogue invaders from Russia.

Today, though, my view has changed. I cannot predict that Ukraine indeed will declare victory at the end of this immoral and illegal war. I am now of a mind that such a thing isn’t so far-fetched.

The trick, though, must be to find a way to bring Russian goon Vladimir Putin to the negotiating table. Ukrainian officials are in no mood, either, to negotiate a peace agreement with Putin and the Russians.

The Russians have killed helpless civilians. They aren’t targeting military objectives. They are striking hospitals and schools. They are killing old people, children and every civilian in between.

Putin has “mobilized” the Russian population. Russians have responded by fleeing the country and protesting in the streets. He has sought to bring more Russians into the fight as Ukrainians have scored monumental battlefield victories against the invaders.

Does the Russian madman need to save face? Looks as though he needs to in a big way. I am not opposed to allowing him to pretend he is saving his mug from further embarrassment.

He also needs to be tried by the World Court for committing crimes against humanity.

Just imagine all of this occurring with Ukrainians signing a victory statement.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

crime news, International news, military news

Ukrainians uncover more war crimes

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As the Ukrainian armed forces take back large swaths of the nation taken by invaders from Russia, the world is getting an even more graphic look at what the Russian aggressors have done to civilians caught in their initial advance.

We are seeing mass graves containing the remains of hundreds of Ukrainian civilians. Yes, women and children are included in the remains of what Ukrainian soldiers have found.

Ukrainians are collecting testimony from surviving civilians who are recounting tales of horror and torture at the hands of the soldiers who captured the territory.

It’s hard to predict how the Ukraine War will end. There might be a negotiated settlement, with Russian thug/goon/strongman Vladimir Putin seeking to save face. Although it seems difficult to imagine how Putin has any more “face” to save, given what we know about the war crimes his forces have committed on orders from the Kremlin.

That turns the discussion toward what Putin might do on the battlefield, given Ukraine’s energized counteroffensive. CBS News “60 Minutes” correspondent Scott Pelley is going to ask President Biden what he’ll do if Putin resorts to chemical weapons or tactical nukes. “Don’t. Don’t. Don’t,” Biden said, telling Pelley that such a move would “change the face of war.”

What does the president intend to do? Pelley asked. Biden responded by saying, “Do you think I’m going to tell you?”

We all are left to lament the horror of war as it is being revealed even more to us by the advancing forces seeking to reclaim the country they thought they lost to the invaders.

I have said already that Vladimir Putin has exposed himself to be a war criminal. As the Ukrainians continue their advance, the world needs to summon the courage to put Putin, a hideous tyrant, on trial for the crimes he has committed against humanity.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

International news

War is shoved aside

I so hate to acknowledge the obvious, but the Ukraine War — once the talk among Americans from coast to coast — has been shoved aside, away from the top of our collective minds.

I suppose we can lay blame on an array of domestic issues: inflation, threats of an economic recession, legislative wheeling and dealing, and — oh, yeah! — the congressional probe into the insurrection of 1/6.

Meanwhile, in that faraway land, Russian tinhorn Vladimir Putin is committing war crimes daily. He is bombing civilian targets, killing women and children with impunity. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy vows to not negotiate an end to the fighting by giving up territory taken by Russians.

If only we could get the International Court to actually charge Putin with war crimes against humanity. My goodness, the evidence is plastered all over our TV screens.

The one-time Soviet spymaster is as bad a dude as there is on the world stage. President Biden wants to punish Russia greatly and by many accounts, the sanctions are having the desired effect.

Our attention span, though, seems limited. Remember the kidnapping of Nigerian women and girls by Boko Haram? Wasn’t that once at the top of the world’s list of outrages? Or the Saudi human rights record in light of the hideous slaying of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi? President Biden has fist-bumped the Saudi crown price responsible for Khashoggi’s murder.

I am not willing to let Putin get away with his crimes against humanity. Neither should anyone else.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

International news

Devastation eclipses motive

Our world is aghast at the depravity, depredation and destruction brought to Ukraine by invading Russian armed forces, so much so that we seem to have lost sight of the motive for the unprovoked attack on a sovereign nation.

Whatever the hell it was …

That brings me to my point, which is that the result of the Russians’ cruelty toward Ukrainians has eclipsed whatever motive the Russian tyrant Vladimir Putin might have concocted to “justify” this illegal and inhumane attack.

He said something about protecting Russian “security.” Against what? Or whom? What threat did Ukraine pose to a nation many times larger geographically than itself?

Putin sent his troops into battle. They have retreated from some sites, leaving behind evidence of the abject destruction he has brought to entire cities. He has killed entire families. Putin has subjected people to untold and unthinkable horror.

And for what reason?

President Joe Biden is correct in expressing his moral outrage. There can be no way on God’s good Earth that “this man,” Putin, can “remain in power.”

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

legal news

Tom Cotton: demagogue

Tom Cotton this week did the seemingly impossible. He spoke in terms that would embarrass even the most shameful demagogues.

The Arkansas Republican U.S. senator actually said out loud in a Senate floor speech that Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson ā€” a former public defender who is about to be confirmed to a seat on the Supreme Court ā€” would rise to the defense of Nazi war criminals and would want them released rather than being held accountable for their crimes against humanity.

Wow! I am not sure how to respond to that bit of character assassination other than to say that Tom Cotton has provided a shameful example of the depths to which he and other demagogues will stoop to score cheap political points with the far-right-wing base of a once-great political party.

I thought Cottonā€™s behavior during the Senate Judiciary Committeeā€™s confirmation hearing of Judge Jacksonā€™s nomination was loathsome enough. Silly me. He outdid himself by offering that despicable example of demagoguery.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

International news

Biden says it clearly: Putin committed war crimes

President Biden has said it clearly and without equivocation: The world has seen with its eyes the depravity and destruction that Russian armed forces have brought to Ukraine, that they have committed crimes against humanity and that the man who rules Russia, Vladimir Putin, needs to be held accountable for those atrocities.

Russian forces have withdrawn from many areas, repositioning in the eastern parts of Ukraine. They have left behind unmistakable evidence of executions committed by those soldiers against civilians. Ukrainian forces have uncovered mass graves containing the bodies of victims shot to death with single bullets in the back of their heads.

Putinā€™s forces did that. The man who commands them, therefore, must be held to account for what those forces have done.

The withdrawal of Russians also has revealed the immense destruction brought to Ukraine by the bombs, artillery shells and rockets sent against civilian targets. We look at those pictures and are aghast at the devastation of entire blocks of buildings. Apartment complexes are blown to bits. So are hospitals, schools and houses of worship, for Godā€™s sake!

Those who have a hint of an understanding of how the Russian military is set up should have no illusion of the independence of the field commanders. They donā€™t have it. They act on orders from the top of the chain of command.

The man at the top? Vladimir Putin.

He has committed war crimes.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

International news

Putin is a war criminal!

Vladimir Putin is a war criminal who needs to be arrested, shackled and sent to jail where he would await trial before an international court that will decide whether he has committed crimes against humanity.

The Russian tyrant has ordered bombs, artillery shells and rockets to destroy hospitals in Ukraine. His orders have resulted in the deaths of children, expectant mothers and countless other civilians. Putin has committed ā€œthe original war crimeā€ specified by the Geneva Convention of 1864, according to ā€œ60 Minutesā€ correspondent Scott Pelley.

Can there be any more reason, therefore, to arrest Vladimir Putin and charge him with the most heinous crime imaginable? I think not!

Ukrainian fighting forces have beaten back the Russian invaders, forcing them to abandon their strategic goal of capturing Kyiv, the capital city of Ukraine. The Russians are retreating at this moment toward the east, possibly to reassemble and seek other targets to attack.

Putinā€™s attack on Ukraine was thought when it began to focus on military targets. Wow! Many of us were dead wrong about that assumption. The videos we see of the carnage throughout Ukraine are shocking and horrifying in the extreme.

The outrage around the world is mounting as these images make their way into peopleā€™s homes.

***

That said, allow me this brief segue toward the thoughts expressed by the current U.S. president and his predecessors. Five living former presidents have been watching these crimes unfold along with the rest of the world. Four of them have condemned Putinā€™s actions with passion and righteous anger. The most recent former president ā€” you know to whom I refer ā€” has talked of Putinā€™s ā€œgeniusā€ and how ā€œsavvyā€ he was to attack Ukraine; moreover, he has asked Putin to dig up dirt on President BidenĀ in the midst of this bloody war.

Vladimir Putin is a war criminal. He must be held accountable for his unspeakable cruelty.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

crime news, International news, military news

Putin: war criminal?

This would be an incredibly difficult case to prove in an international court of law, but there could be evidence mounting that Russian thug/tyrant/despot Vladimir Putin has committed war crimes in his so-far-unsuccessful effort to subjugate Ukraine under the alleged might of his armed forces.

Russian troops are withdrawing from previously held territory in Ukraine and are leaving behind mass graves with the corpses of hundreds of civilians killed shot to death with single bullets in the back of their heads. They appear to have been executed by the Russian invaders.

Then comes the question:Ā Were they acting on orders from the Kremlin?

Accordingly, I suppose one could ask whether there could be rogue commanders in the field acting on their own. Whatever the case, it all ā€” or most of it, at least ā€” falls on the lap of the former KGB spy master who now runs Russia as its commander in chief.

The despicable level of violence is being revealed now as Russian forces pull back from Kyiv and other key Ukrainian cities. Whether they merely are repositioning themselves for a new round of attacks remains to be determined. Whatever the intent, it is clear the Ukrainians are waging one hell of a fight against a force believed at the beginning of this conflict to be so powerful that it would steamroll its way into Kyiv.

They ainā€™t steamrolling anything.

The Russians, though, appear to have engaged in egregious crimes against humanity. Someone at the top of the Russian chain of command needs to be held accountable.

Letā€™s see. I believe that would be Vladimir Putin.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com