'US kills civilians to intimidate people'Thu, 12 Aug 2010 18:01:29 GMT
http://presstv.com/detail.aspx?id=138458§ionid=351020403
Writer and radio host Stephen Lendman A US writer and radio host says that the country's killing of civilians in Afghanistan serves the purpose of public intimidation.
"There have been many, many thousands of Afghan civilians, men, women and children deliberately targeted, deliberately killed to intimidate the population," Stephen Lendman told Press TV on Thursday.
"Things go back, I believe, to World War II, to intimidate the opposition. We did it ruthlessly in Vietnam, and the most well-known Operation Phoenix, with the estimated number of civilians that we killed, numbered maybe 80,000. The number could have been doubled," he added.
He said the United States military presences in Iraq and Afghanistan is tantamount to war crime.
"There is no question of war crimes being committed … our presence in both Iraq and Afghanistan is a war crime; both wars are illegal. We violated international law. We violated US law. We violated the US Constitution by being there. These are war crimes. Every day by being there, we have committed war crimes, because we have committed crimes against humanity. We deliberately target civilians. There is nothing about random civilian killings," he added.
Lendman is a prolific writer on domestic and international issues with damning pieces of criticism on the American military interventions and Israeli acts of violence.
HN/MGH
