All sides should be accountable for crimes in war

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We all know the Nazis and the Japanese were brought to justice for war crimes and crimes against humanity after the second world war but few from the Allied side (Brits, Americans, Soviets and others) faced justice for any wrong-doings except a few court martials. I personally think all sides should be held to account for any crimes committed during a time of war and not just one side. We are probably seeing that now with the International Court wants both Israeli leaders and Hamas leaders to face trial for war crimes and other wrong-doings.

I hate to correct you but not all Japanese war criminals were held accountable after WWII. Those with information on Unit 731 (trigger warning: do not search for it unless you can stomach gore) were let go by the Americans for that information. The same can be said of the Nazis (rocket program information, Warner Von Braun later worked for NASA). Both the Axis and Allies had committed war crimes at one point in time during the war.

Under principle, the idea to have both sides accountable for war crimes has merit. It is nearly impossible to do so. It becomes a grey area at best. The winners almost always gets to control who was accountable for actions in war. Case in point, Japan after WWII wanted everyone who participated in nuclear weapon development in the U.S. to be held accountable for the two atomic bombs used against their country. Exactly how would that had been done? Germany and Japan were also working on developing the same weapons during the war, but had limited resources to get the job done.

Yes, ideally this would be the case.

Well...duhhhhh...

In a perfect world BOTH sides would be held accountable for their war crimes. Not just the loosing side (as is usually the case).

But in a perfect world neither side would perpetrate war crimes in the first place.

Both sides would fight fair and clean of the time.

Except in a perfect world you wouldnt have ANY kind of wars in the first place (even fair and clean ones).

“Merry Christmas, Canadians,” said the opposing Germans, poking their heads above the parapet and waving a box of cigars.

All that "Queensbury rules" crap changed when warring sides started using mustard gas in WWI. But I have to admit, the idea of German troops being so "civil" must have been a distant memory by 1941.

My standards were not high when I was saying a 'clean' war.

I basically meant a war thats not genocidal.

They say that there were only two big major wars that were not genocidal (ie more soldiers were killed than civilians): the American Civil War, and the western front in the First World War.

In contrast in the current war in Gaza both HAMAS and the IDF have killed staggering numbers of civilians. But I have yet to see proof that either side has actually harmed a single actual fighting man on the other side yet! Hope that both sides are proud of themselves!

And even if you believe Israel's claims of decimating and devastating HAMAS by killing them in thousands...we all know that theyre making a hundred new terrorist recruits for every one terrorist they might have killed because of their brutal bombing campaign of Gaza.