Yesterday, defense officials confirmed that no one would be punished for the death of 10 innocents in Afghanistan:
No military personnel will be punished for mistakes made in a drone strike that killed 10 civilians in Afghanistan in August, defense officials confirmed on Monday.
Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said that senior leaders have reviewed the incident and offered their final recommendations, which were “more about procedure and process” than any punishments. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin accepted the findings in recent weeks.
“None of their recommendations dealt specifically with issues of accountability,” Kirby said. “So I do not anticipate there being issues of personal accountability to be had with respect to the Aug. 29 air strike.”
Today, China took advantage of this situation by criticizing the US, saying the era of the US criticizing human rights abuses is over.
On Tuesday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin criticized the U.S. military’s decision not to punish those behind an August airstrike that killed 10 civilians and said the U.S. can no longer use the “pretext” of supporting democracy and human rights to act around the world.
“While the US talked about ‘democracy’ and ‘human rights’ at the ‘Summit for Democracy,’ the innocent Afghan people who were gunned down by the US military were brushed aside and their families had no place to complain about their grievances,” Wang said. “This is the harsh reality brought to the world by the so-called ‘democracy’ and ‘human rights’ advocated by the U.S.”
Wang condemned U.S. military interventions in countries like Afghanistan. Iraq and Syria, and called for the international community to “look into the U.S. military’s war crimes of killing innocent civilians around the world and hold it accountable.”
“Justice may be delayed, but it will not be denied,” Wang added. “The era in which the U.S. acted arbitrarily in the world under the pretext of so-called ‘democracy’ and ‘human rights’ is over. The day of reckoning will eventually come for the U.S. military who committed the crimes of killing innocent civilians in many countries.”