A Tale of Two Bridges

Yesterday, on BBC Radio 4's Facebook page:

“You don’t hit schools, you don’t hit energy sources, you don’t hit bridges: those are war crimes.”

UN humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher criticises [criticizes] actions in the Iran war and says leaders have chosen ‘game show gambling’ over humanity by hitting civilian infrastructure.

Many years ago, when the Allied Air Forces conducted a massive campaign to destroy rail and road bridges in France and Belgium, before and after D-Day, no one called it a war crime. Has anyone ever called it a war crime? Maybe Nazi sympathizers did. And when the Ukrainians hit the Crimea bridge and the Ukrainian government tweeted "Sick burn," Russia's foreign ministry reacted by saying that it was a crime:

"The Kiev [Kyiv] regime's reaction towards destruction of civilian infrastructure is a testament to its terrorist nature."

It is hard to exaggerate the significance, and symbolism, of seeing the bridge on fire. Ukrainian authorities said it was a legitimate target, as they vow to retake the peninsula.

That was from BBC News, 8 October 2022. So, we have a UN humanitarian chief siding with Iran (and probably some Nazi sympathizers) and Russia, when it comes to hitting bridges. No wonder Israel does not trust a UN humanitarian agency, when it comes to the supply of aid to an area run by Iran's friends.