Since 2016, sane Americans recognized the global threat that a Trump presidency would bring. Hillary Clinton famously said, “A man you can bait with a tweet is not a man we can trust with nuclear weapons.” Frankly, I’m surprised it took this long. With his reckless assassination of Iranian Major General Qassem Soleimani sans congressional approval, Donald Trump has united the region in anger and anti-American sentiment and put our country squarely in the cross-hairs for an attack. In addition, he is endangering the lives of millions of Iranians.
The repercussions have been swift and scary. Thousands of Iranians took to the streets for Soleimani’s funeral, burning American and Israeli flags and chanting “Death to America”. Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has threatened military retaliation.
Hossein Dehghan, a former Iranian defense minister, said of the response, “It was America that has started the war. Therefore, they should accept appropriate reactions to their actions. The only thing that can end this period of war is for the Americans to receive a blow that is equal to the blow they have inflicted,” he told the network. “Afterward, they should not seek a new cycle.”
But that is the crux of Trump’s plan in a nutshell: he is baiting Iran into a war to distract from his impeachment and to boost his support. Wartime presidents are notoriously popular, and always re-elected. Trump is clearly following the same playbook that George W. Bush did with the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.
But Trump, who recklessly makes foreign policy decisions via Twitter, has now threatened to destroy historical and culturally important sites in the country.
….targeted 52 Iranian sites (representing the 52 American hostages taken by Iran many years ago), some at a very high level & important to Iran & the Iranian culture, and those targets, and Iran itself, WILL BE HIT VERY FAST AND VERY HARD. The USA wants no more threats!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 4, 2020
These actions, if carried out, would be international war crimes, plain and simple:
“United Nations resolution 2347 condemns “the unlawful destruction of cultural heritage, including the destruction of religious sites and artefacts, and the looting and smuggling of cultural property from archaeological sites, museums, libraries, archives, and other sites, notably by terrorist groups.”
And under Protocol I of the Geneva Conventions it is prohibited to “commit any acts of hostility directed against the historic monuments, works of art or places of worship which constitute the cultural or spiritual heritage of peoples…to use such objects in support of the military effort…[and] to make such objects the object of reprisals.”
Experts and politicians were quick to call Trump on his dangerous tweets:
You are threatening to commit war crimes. We are not at war with Iran. The American people do not want a war with Iran. This is a democracy. You do not get to start a war with Iran, and your threats put our troops and diplomats at greater risk. Stop. pic.twitter.com/RoXRgb9GsK
— Elizabeth Warren (@ewarren) January 5, 2020
Someone better let the President know he's threatening war crimes.
– 52 sites for purely symbolic reasons would be a war crime.
– Striking cultural sites without military necessity would be a war crime
– Striking in revenge is a war crime
– Targeting civilians is a war crime— Tom Nichols (@RadioFreeTom) January 4, 2020
This is a war crime.
Threatening to target and kill innocent families, women and children – which is what you’re doing by targeting cultural sites – does not make you a “tough guy.”
It does not make you “strategic.”
It makes you a monster. https://t.co/IjkNO8BD07— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) January 5, 2020
Iran today announced that they would be lifting their restrictions and exiting from the 2015 nuclear deal. We will have to wait and see what develops as the fallout continues, but none of it will be good. Trump meanwhile, is golfing at his resort in Palm Beach.
(via NBC News, image: MOHAMMAD TAGHI/TASNIM NEWS/AFP via Getty Images)
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