And I’m not saying that Russia deliberately targeted a maternity hospital…but I am saying that they shelled it none the less. And if Russia had not invaded Ukraine, that maternity hospital would not have been shelled. At all.srothstein wrote: ↑Sat Mar 12, 2022 12:46 pm I notice one interesting thing about that shelled hospital. I could be wrong, but I do not see any holes in the walls of it such as would result from a direct hit. The destruction I saw looks more like concussion from near misses, such as hitting a building nearby or counter-battery fire against an artillery unit in the field next to the hospital.
Some of the apartment buildings nearby appear to have hits from light artillery, but only a few. That strikes me as someone was shelling a target nearby. Artillery is not always a precision weapon. Much as I cannot always put bullets in the same hole at fifty feet using a bench rest, a cannon cannot put its shells in the same spot every time.
Since the media is only showing the aftermath (for justifiable reasons), I am forced to admit that the evidence shows a possibility that Russia was telling the truth about firing at a military target and the damage is simply collateral damage from that.
I support Ukraine in this war, but I am also honest enough to admit that it is possible they put military targets near a hospital. Not directly using it as human shield type cover, but in an urban war it is hard to not have things happen like that near schools and hospitals. We built our cities that way.
Artillery and rocket barrages are battlefield denial weapons. They’re meant for flattening an entire grid square, not for surgically precise strikes. Russia knows this, as does any other first world nation. Short of total hyper-war, like the retaking of Manila or Hue, there’s NO excuse for this. If you have to strike a target in the middle of an urban environment, then for God's sake, use a drone with a guided missile, like our Reaper/Hellfire, or use a surgical air strike with appropriately sized smart-bombs. Russia surely has this technology. Surely they know how to use it. They have no moral ground to stand on for not using it.
If they want to complain that their aircraft are at risk to Ukrainians with MANPADs, well, that’s their problem. If they had not invaded Ukraine, their aircraft would not be at risk. They do not have a moral leg to stand on.
Ukraine has EVERY right to defend their national sovereignty. Russia had NO right to violate Ukraine's national sovereignty. Absent that right, it’s none of their damned business if Ukraine emplaces a defensive military asset near a hospital, whether or not it was intentionally done that way. It’s simply not Russia's decision to make. But it IS Russia's responsibility if her battlefield commanders commit war crimes. Certain Americans went on trial for atrocities committed in the GWOT…ostensibly to accomplish some mission or other. What’s good for them is good for Russians too. Lock those thuggish Russians up.
