With the conflict in Gaza provoking debate over what constitutes a violation of international humanitarian law, The Onion asked Americans to define a “war crime,” and this is what they said.

“I’m not sure, but I don’t think they have anything to do with what America did in the Philippines between 1899 and 1906; in Haiti between 1915 and 1934; in Japan during World War II; in Korea between 1950 and 1953; in Guatemala in 1954; in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia between 1960 and 1972; in Cuba in 1961; in Indonesia in the 1960s; in Chile in 1973; in East Timor in 1975; in El Salvador and Nicaragua in the 1980s; in the Persian Gulf in the early 1990s; in Serbia in 1999; in Afghanistan between 2001 and 2021; in Iraq between 2003 and 2007; in Somalia, Libya, and Yemen in the 2010s; and what’s happening in Guantánamo Bay right now.”