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The terms "war criminal" and "war crimes" are used too often.
Recently in Afghanistan US troops opened fire on multiple buildings with civilians in them, and dozens of people were killed. This is not a war crime. US troops were fired on from those buildings, and returned fire. In a combat situation you cannot call a time out and investigate if there are civilians in a certain location.
A war criminal is someone who intentionally targets civilians. This means someone has to say "I want every civilian in this town killed".
Also, you can never ever claim a war was "illegal". There was a lot of discussion about the war against Iraq being illegal. There is no law about declaring war on another country or attacking another country.
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