Military Denies War Crimes, Blames Hospital for Existing
ABC News reports the Myanmar military, known as the Tatmadaw, claims an airstrike on a hospital was justified because 'armed opposition groups used [it] as base.' This boilerplate denial is, by now, an international standard operating procedure for targeting civilian infrastructure, a tactic that has become disturbingly normalized across various conflicts. This narrative echoes familiar refrains
from other conflicts—Netanyahu's government, for instance, has repeatedly alleged Hamas uses hospitals and schools as command centers, a convenient pretext often lacking verifiable independent evidence, used to justify strikes on already overwhelmed civilian facilities. The pattern is clear: accuse the victim of weaponizing civilian spaces, then claim 'self-defense' for destroying them. Funny how
the 'enemy' always seems to be hiding in the exact civilian spots international law protects.