Three months ago the International Criminal Court began collecting testimony for prosecuting war crimes that happened in Afghanistan during our 16 years of occupation. They probably didn't expect what would happen.



More than one million statements from Afghan people and organizations have been submitted to the International Criminal Court alleging war crimes were committed by several actors in the country including the U.S. military, the CIA, Afghan forces and the Taliban, local groups working with the Hague-based tribunal said Friday.

Abdul Wadood Pedram, an official at the Kabul-based Human Rights and Eradication of Violence Organization, told the Associated Press Friday that his group has knowledge of the groups and individuals who submitted the 1.17 million statements to the court over the past three months.

"It is shocking there are so many," Pedram said, noting that in some instances, whole villages were represented. "It shows how the justice system in Afghanistan is not bringing justice for the victims and their families."

Holy F*ck.

Nearly 1.2 million statements for war crimes. That's incredible, and yet that is likely an understatement.



Pedram told the AP that since in some cases one statement represents multiple people or whole village, the number of people seeking the war crimes probe could amount to several millions.

Individuals and organizations who have spoken to media over the past few months documented many cases of extrajudicial killings, torture and persecution by local and foreign actors including warlords connected to the Afghan government as well as the CIA and the U.S. military.

Granted, at least half of those statements are against the Taleban, and most of the rest will be against our Afghan allies.

But if only a couple percent are against U.S. forces, that's still thousands upon thousands of war crimes.

And then Trump tripled the bombing of Afghanistan.

Since the United States is not a member of the ICC, we don't have to cooperate with any of their rulings. However, since the crimes happened in a member state, any American that is indicted and travelling overseas can be arrested.

When I did a search for this story, there were no major American news outlets reporting it. I know. Shocking.

In related news, the Department of Defense Inspector General released a report yesterday while you were distracted by Russiagate.



The Department of Defense Inspector General released a report Friday saying that “no significant progress” had been made in 2017 toward Afghan authorities’ stated goal of bringing 80 percent of the country’s population under government control amid a Taliban insurgency.

The report found little evidence to support comments that the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, Army Gen. John W. Nicholson Jr., and other top U.S. officials made late last year, arguing that U.S.-backed troops had “turned the corner” and gained momentum in their fight against the Taliban.

What? More bombs don't solve things? But it worked so well in Vietnam.