What Exactly Are War Crimes, Anyway?

It has been a little tricky finding material to write about for a few days. News has been kind of slow. Really, really slow. There were two separate news articles about a cat in a tree.

So. Time to branch out well beyond my expertise into an ill-informed rant, I think.

Omar Khadr is out on bail, pending appeal of his war crimes conviction in the US. The Canadian Government, and the US State Department, have been pulling out all the stops to prevent his release, but last week they weren’t able to prevent it.

It’s interesting to consider because there really isn’t a lot of precedent for this sort of War Crimes convictions. I mean, Nazis, sure. But people weren’t tried at Nuremberg for throwing grenades. This doesn’t seem like the sort of thing that counts as a war crime. War, sure. Or a crime. But not both.

If it was treated as a crime, he’d be out by now. A kid? Yeah, he would have got 10 years. Probably paroled after 5. If it was war? He would have been released soon after the cessation of hostilities. Which depending on your definition would be either 2002 or 2014.

What if it was considered treason? That certainly seems like a reasonable charge, and I have no idea why it wasn’t attempted. Perhaps because he attacked Americans rather than Canadians? Perhaps because they wanted to use similar charges against all the Taliban involved in that fight, regardless of nationality?

In any case, he wasn’t charged with treason. He was charged with War Crimes… acts which don’t really seem to be defined. In fact, up until 2001, you would probably have broad agreement that War Crimes didn’t include ordinary us-vs-them battles but were reserved for other things, like genocide or torture.

Oh, yeah, I shouldn’t leave that out. Khadr was tortured in prison.

So what does all this add up to? I doubt he’ll win his appeal in the US. But it might not matter. He’s due to be released in three more years. It took 8 years for his original trial. I’m sure someone will find a way to bog down the appeal long enough for it to become moot.

But for now, he’s out.