Petraeus Manual and Tactics Flout International Law
Death and Suffering Grow for the Iraqi People
General David Petraeus’ blueprint for the surge in Iraq implicitly violates international law as do U.S. tactics that have dramatically increased the level death and suffering for Iraqi people, according to a report released today by ConsumersforPeace.org.
The report, entitled “U.S. War Crimes in the ‘Surge’ - 2007”, begins with an analysis by noted human rights lawyer Karen Parker of the US Army/Marine counterinsurgency manual produced by General Petraeus. The manual has been considered the operational plan for the latest U.S. offensive. Ms. Parker, specifying the ways in which the manual fails the test of international law, says: “The bottom line is that the Manual is a blueprint for the subjucation of the Iraqi people.”
The second section of the report, prepared by author and researcher Bill Rau, focuses on the devastating consequences to the Iraqi people of the vastly expanded use of air strikes against resistance fighters and the dramatically increased detentions of Iraqis. This section of the report also documents the continued deterioration of public services that plague Iraq.
The report is a one-year follow-up of “U.S. War Crimes in Iraq; Mechanisms for Accountability,” published in October 2006 by ConsumersforPeace.org.
Ms. Parker is President of the San Francisco-based Association of Humanitarian Lawyers (www.humanlaw.org) and Chief Delegate to the United Nations for the Los Angeles-based International Educational Development/Humanitarian Law Project (IED/AHL), an accredited non-governmental organization on the U.N. Secretary-General’s list. Mr. Rau is the author of From Feast to Famine and a researcher and development policy analyst based in Washington, DC.
ConsumersforPeace.org, directed by Nick Mottern, is a website and organizing entity that focuses on the relationship between oil and the Iraq War and advocates for accountability for the invasion and occupation of Iraq. It promotes the ExxonMobil War Boycott.