Re: The Minneapolis Star Tribune editorial “Another View: Hold Putin to account for war crimes” (April 8):

The Russian invasion of Ukraine is, in itself, a war crime. Any war of aggression is a “crime against peace” as embodied in Nuremberg Principle VI. It also appears Russian forces have engaged in various war crimes including intentional targeting of civilians and using banned weapons. It is essential that the world sees what happens in war through unfiltered journalism in order to prosecute perpetrators.

Coverage of Ukraine is crucial, yet the irony is that our own U.S. wars of aggression in Afghanistan and Iraq went undocumented as war crimes by Western media. These, too, were wars of aggression and crimes against peace. Neither country ever attacked the United States. U.S. forces also used banned cluster munitions, bombed civilian targets and targeted journalists, killing two in the shelling of the Palestine Hotel in Baghdad in 2003. The U.S. also refuses to be party to the International Criminal Court; that avenue of justice is closed to us.

Regarding Putin’s war crimes, the West unfortunately has little moral credibility to pursue justice for Ukraine. The hypocrisy that international law pertains only to others, because we refuse to be subject to it, is well understood by much of the world. The media continue to do humanity an injustice by ignoring the lack of accountability faced by the U.S. for Iraq and Afghanistan. We cannot credibly charge the Putins of the world with crimes when we commit them ourselves.

Paul Cunningham
South Portland