Local news reporters and editors fail to report on International Law violations right here in Vermont
Three weeks after the Israeli onslaught on Gaza began, National Public Radio aired a story that considered whether Israel violated international law with its attack on the Jabalia refugee camp just north of Gaza City. In NPR’s report, Tom Dannenbaum, a professor at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy laid out the rules that protect civilians during military operations: https://www.npr.org/2023/11/01/1210000746/a-look-at-the-laws-that-govern-urban-warfare-in-gaza-and-beyond.
The military’s own rules as explained by the professor:
The first is the rule of distinction, which means targeting military objectives and not civilians or civilian objects; second, the prohibition on indiscriminate attacks, which is to say that one has to have a discrete military target, not target an area in which there are military objectives but also civilian populations and civilian objects; third, that one has to take adequate precautions, which is to say do everything feasible to minimize the expected civilian loss of life, injury and damage to civilian objects; and finally, not to engage in the attack at all if the civilian loss of life, injury or damage to civilian objects that would be expected from the attack would be excessive in relation to the military advantage that the commander authorizing the attack anticipates from that attack.
Women and children account for nearly 70% of the 18,000 civilians killed and the over 40,000 civilians wounded in Gaza. The horror of the massacre of so many thousands of children in their own homes, and the targeting of schools, hospitals, universities, mosques, and UN facilities is not just destroying unwavering support for Israel. It is also boosting public awareness that military forces are required to conduct their operations in accordance with the rules that, in multiple different ways, protect civilians and civilian property.
But targeting civilians with death and destruction on such a magnitude is not needed before those rules of military discipline come into effect. The whole point of military law is to prevent such crimes from ever happening in the first place.
Law of war Principles apply in all military operations
Department of Defense Directive 2311.01 requires members of the US armed forces not just “to comply with the law of war during all armed conflicts, however characterized.” This Directive requires members to “continue to act consistent with the law of war’s fundamental principles and rules” in “all other military operations.” And that includes military training operations right here in Vermont with the F-35 jets.
The Directive requires effective programs to prevent violations of the law of war, up to and including “instituting criminal proceedings” of those who violate the rules. Federal law 32 USC 501 requires members of state national guard units to comply with the same military discipline as members of US armed forces.
“Distinction” violated in Vermont cities
Now let’s consider the Vermont Air National Guard military training operation with F-35 jets in Vermont’s most densely populated cities.
No one denies that this F-35 training is hurting civilians, particularly children. The widespread recognition may be the result of some excellent reporting of pain, injury, and suffering inflicted on adults and children living in the extreme noise zone of the F-35. See, for example the article, “Panic attacks. Ringing ears. Shaking walls. Happy 1-year anniversary to the F-35s,” that was published on VTDigger September 27, 2020. And also on VTDigger, “Pandemic isolation and increased flights spike F-35 noise complaints,” April 27, 2021. A Seven Days cover story, “Sound Effects: In the F-35’s Flight Path, Vermonters’ Lives Have Changed,” was published July 7, 2021. See also, the 12-minute film “Jet Line, Voicemails from the Flight Path. And the video recording on Channel 17 of the “Winooski City Council F-35 Forum” on September 27, 2021. The “impact” to civilians was also confirmed by such authorities as the Vermont Air National Guard Wing Commander, and Senator Patrick Leahy.
The harm inflicted on civilians in Vermont is knowing and deliberate
That civilians would be harmed was well known to the military well in advance of the arrival of the first F-35 jet at Burlington International Airport. It had been the subject of detailed study by the US Air Force. The facts were disclosed in two volumes of the 2013 Air Force Environmental Impact Statement (EIS). In Volume II of the EIS the US Air Force said that repeated exposure to military aircraft noise at the 115-decibel level of the F-35 can cause hearing loss and can impair the cognitive development of children. In Volume I the US Air Force said that the 115-decibel F-35 would disproportionately impact low income and minority Vermonters who live in the oval-shaped extreme noise sacrifice zone centered on the runway:
About half of the population of Winooski, 15% of South Burlington, 5% of Burlington, and 10% of Williston live in that sacrifice zone. None of the wealthy neighborhoods, like Summit Street, where the Mayor of Burlington lives, or the wealthy parts of the South East Quadrant of South Burlington, where most of that city’s elected city councilors live, are in the sacrifice zone. It’s really a zone of low income and minority populations.
The admissions of severe injury to adults and children in the Air Force report mean that Vermont Air National Guard commanders cannot deny that the harm they inflict on civilians with the F-35 training is knowing and deliberate. Nor can commanders deny that by unnecessarily using a city location they are inherently targeting civilians, including the 1,300 children who live in the extreme noise sacrifice oval shaped zone of the F-35.
As the professor said, “Distinction means targeting military objectives and not civilians or civilian objects.” In Vermont, distinction requires separating the 115-decibel F-35 training from populated areas.
But not one Vermont news organization ever went beyond reporting on the injury and suffering and questioned a Vermont Air National Guard Commander or political leader about alleged violation of “distinction.” Not one even reported on the existence of such military rules that protect civilians.
The law of war regulations violated were not kept secret from Vermont news organizations. 657 Vermonters signed on to a 62-page complaint to the Inspector General of the Vermont Air National Guard in October 2020. The complaint presented the facts and the law, including the military’s own regulations. It was shared with reporters and editors at every local news organization and was posted online.
But local news media completely failed to report on the submission of the complaint and its allegations of military discipline violated. No reporter interviewed the Inspector General. No reporter or editor questioned commanders about distinction. None reported that the Inspector General shelved the complaint and never responded. It was not only justice denied. It was the denial of justice that was not even reported.
Yet the decision by the Inspector General to not respond to the complaint was effectively an admission that the use of a densely populated location for the F-35 training violates the military’s own discipline.
The decision to use and abuse
Not just the low income and minority Vermonters are hurt. Daily using and abusing these civilian families and their children get airmen used to committing war crimes when they are deployed in the next overseas US war.
Local news media failed in their fundamental job
Local news media failed in their fundamental job to report on the gross violation of the military’s own rules. Vermont reporters and editors daily prove themselves willing to see thousands of low income and minority Vermonters and their children sacrificed to state-sponsored military violence without even raising the question of distinction with commanders.
Will the toxic mix of sadistic commanders and politicians and compliant local news media continue? Will thousands of low income and minority Vermonters continue to be sacrificed? Will local news media ever question commanders about compliance with the military’s own rules? Will state political and military leaders continue to enjoy impunity? Or will the increasing public awareness of such law of war rules as distinction, stimulated by Israel’s illegitimate bombing of the Jabalia refugee camp, finally make a difference right here in Vermont?