Remember a little incident at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq? The one that spawned thousands of headlines around the world about American military abuse of Iraqi prisoners? Was there an international investigation into the offenses?
No. There was an internal U.S. Army investigation. Soldiers were court martialed and imprisoned for their offenses and dismissed from the U.S. Army.
Remember the case of the British Army soldiers who caused the death of an Iraqi prisoner of war and were tried for their crimes? Was there an international investigation into this?
No. There was an internal British Army investigation, and a corporal was found guilty and sentenced to a year in prison and dismissed from the British Army.
The Gaza Flotilla case is no different from the ones above. Oh, wait a minute. Yes it is. In the flotilla case, the dead and wounded weren’t prisoners of war. In the flotilla case, the dead and wounded were attacking Israeli soldiers. In the flotilla case, there will not be an internal investigation solely by the country whose soldiers were involved in the conflict, because the international community holds Israel to a very different standard than it holds the rest of the world. And so, it seems, does President Obama. In spite of Israel putting two international observers on the investigatory committee, the calls for an international investigation will only get louder. Here is how the AP dismisses Israel’s international observer:
In an attempt to widen the image of the inquiry, Israel’s Cabinet also approved two prominent international observers: David Trimble, a Nobel peace laureate from Northern Ireland, and Canada’s former chief military prosecutor, retired Brig. Gen. Ken Watkin.
Trimble, a member of the British House of Lords, belongs to a pro-Israel faction in the parliament. Watkin has been a visiting fellow in the human rights program at Harvard Law School.
The participation of Trimble – who, like most Protestants in Northern Ireland, closely identifies with Israel – as well as the limited scope of the inquiry could draw international criticism.
So why is it that the world insists on an international investigation over an internal one?
Because it is Israeli Double Standard Time. But don’t worry! It only occurs on days that end with a “y.”
lol. we couldn’t have somebody who actually LIKES israel, investigating israel. the only people qualified to give an unbiased investigation of israel are people who hate israel, you know.
You’d think that when a central tool of the administration’s anti-terror strategy is the Hellfire missile, they’d be a little more circumspect about judging others who use force. The terrorists on the Mavi Marmara were not collateral damage but principals in the violence; unlike the family of an AQ target in Afghanistan or Pakistan.