All that will be forgotten when Sweden gets involved in a 'real' war. Fighting is in your blood. All your education will be forgotten and your evolutionary traits for war will resurface when your population is pushed to the extreme.
Economics and strategy will take precedence over Geneva conventions then.
You will be surprised. The US shot down the jet in July and the 8 year war, which the Iranians had no plan in ending, ended in August. It was a typical US threat. You think the US has followed Geneva Convention back during the Vietnam War?
Bombing a civilian center is not a deliberate and systematic extermination of a national, racial, political, or cultural group.
So now you agree that 'some' rebel groups are backed by the US. Good.
There are no moderate groups in Syria. Did you notice that they were yelling they won't allow Christians in Syria also? It appears the West has its own definition for 'moderate'.
The city is mentioned. It's Damascus. There's only the US backed FSA in strength there. The group is not part of FSA, but is allied to the West.
Whether to follow the Geneva Convention or not is a personal choice.
I believe in following the Convention regardless of the status of the opponent, simply to maintain
my personal sanity.
The VIETCONG were considered criminals by the South Vietnamese and not treated
according to the Geneva Convention. They had not signed the convention,
US policy was to hand over prisoners to the South Vietnamese, but they also made
them change their policy so after some time the South Vietnamese decided
that the Convention was applicable.
That said both sides were not in compliance.
I have seen figures that 60% of the US pilots captured were tortured,
and the US maintained interrogation centres which many POWs did not survive.
It was a dirty war.
The plane was shot down July 3rd.
A ceasefire was brokered by the UN a little bit later, but both Iraq and Iran went on offensives anyway,
20-25 July, with the final ceasefire on 8th of August.
With offensives occuring AFTER the incident, I would say that it had little if none effect.
Already at the beginning of the Syrian Rebellion, it was deemed problematic to find
any "good guys". "moderates" is therefore a relative and not an absolute term.
The US has supported the FSA but at this stage it is questionable if FSA actually exists.
That is why support from the West is luke-warm at best.
Majority of support comes from KSA and Gulf States.
The group imprisoning the Alawites share the goal of wanting Assad gone, but
have been called terrorists by John Kerry.
The way the Assad forces behave is systematic enough for me,
and since often the targets are purely civilian, in massive numbers
the choice is between surrender and extermination.
That is genocide in my book,
We will just have to agree to disagree,