Double tap

It’s like something from the ending of “The Hunger Games.” If you’ll remember, one of the main characters in that book was killed by a double-tap artillery strike. Vladimir Putin’s people might have picked up the bright idea elsewhere. But the idea is as nasty in real life as it is in fiction.

A double-tap strike is one that 1) hits an area with a missile, 2) waits a few minutes before 3) hitting the same area again, this time to target first-responders.

The Ukrainians say Russia has been doing this since the start of Putin’s War, and last week blew up dozens with a similar strike in the city of Pokrovsk. Nine people were killed, 80 wounded.

The missiles hit within 40 minutes of each other. But—once again showing the bravery of first-responders everywhere—this wasn’t a rare occurrence. The Ukrainians say the Russians have been doing this frequently. The Russians have a history of such tactics in Syria.

Last week, after the strike(s), one of the surviving Ukrainian first-responders said he knew the danger when he went in to dig for survivors, but took the chance. What else was he going to do? Sit by and let the rubble smother his brethren?

Does the American military still use forward observers, or are the artillery batteries too accurate for that these days? Once upon a long-ago time, we remember the practice of sending in one shell toward an enemy camp, then, based on where it landed, the field officer would correct the fire, or radio in: “Fire for effect.” But that was military-on-military action.

Firing on civilians and targeting ambulance drivers and medics and firefighters is a war crime.

International investigators shouldn’t forget that. Or this past week.