Any bombings meant to target Iranian cultural sites are “off-limits,” said the US Pentagon in a statement earlier this week.
Politics
Those words are incredibly newsworthy since they directly contradict a statement from Donald Trump, who vowed to rain down bombs on Iran — including various Iranian cultural sites — unless the Middle East nation kowtows to his demands and skips any retaliation for last week’s US assassination of Iranian General Qasem Soleimani.
“They’re allowed to torture and maim our people. They’re allowed to use roadside bombs and blow up our people. And we’re not allowed to touch their cultural site? It doesn’t work that way,” Trump said while being discredited by members of his administration and his own party.
Do you notice 2 discrepancies here?
- Donald Trump’s threats to bomb Iranian cultural sites is illegal and considered a war crime, according to the Geneva Convention. If he were to bomb the sites anyway, he would lose the support of all world powers (including current US allies) and could face prosecution by a global jury for war crimes.
- The fact that the US Pentagon felt it necessary to publicly discredit and negate a military threat from their own Commander-In-Chief shows there’s a severe crack in the armor between the Trump White House and his military generals.
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….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
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Could there be trouble in GOP paradise?
The fact that Donald Trump actually believes his assassination of a beloved Iranian general combined with his mob boss-like threats to completely destroy cherished Iranian cultural sites will somehow benefit the US and make Americans safer is a crock of baloney.
At least that’s what Republican Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky basically said during a recent interview with CNN.
“The stated purpose by the administration was that they were going to prevent attacks on Americans. But I think if you ask the question now is it more or less likely that there’ll be attacks on Americans I think it’s much more likely,” Paul told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer. “While Soleimani may have been planning attacks — and probably was — it’s now a certainty that there will be attacks in revenge for his killing.”
Sen. Paul then took aim at Trump and his administration’s very obvious lack of an end game.
“The death of Soleimani I think is the death of diplomacy with Iran. I don’t see an off-ramp, I don’t see a way out of this.” – Republican Sen. Rand Paul
“The Iranians will not be able to approach us on diplomacy until there’s revenge. This is sad. The death of Soleimani I think is the death of diplomacy with Iran. I don’t see an off-ramp, I don’t see a way out of this.”
Sen. Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina and one of Trump’s staunchest supporters, also weighed in.
“We’re not at war with the culture of the Iranian people,” Graham said on Monday. “We’re in a conflict with the theology, the ayatollah and his way of doing business.”
The surprise break in public unity between the GOP and any and everything Donald Trump does came after Iranian officials denounced the Trump-led assassination and threats to ruin Iranian cultural artifacts.
“By threatening to target Iranian cultural sites if Tehran responds to the airstrike which killed general Qasem Soleimani, US President Donald Trump showed the international community that he has no respect for international law and is prepared to commit war crimes — attacking cultural sites is a war crime,” Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif said on Tuesday.
“This is an act of aggression against Iran, and amounts to an armed attack against Iran and we will respond. But we will respond proportionally not disproportionally,” he said. “We will respond lawfully, we are not lawless people like President Trump.”
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Those masquerading as diplomats and those who shamelessly sat to identify Iranian cultural & civilian targets should not even bother to open a law dictionary.
Jus cogens refers to peremptory norms of international law, i.e. international red lines. That is, a big(ly) “no no”.
— Javad Zarif (@JZarif) January 5, 2020
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He then added:
“President Trump, after watching the crowds yesterday, must stop threatening these people who will be further enraged by his threats — his threats will not frighten us.”
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Tied up in a meeting most of this morning which actually gave me some time to really think about how this whole thing is playing out here in America.
First: Thanks DJ for covering this because whether most Americans are truly paying attention to all of this…Or Not….this is some truly serious stuff!
And it behooves all of Us…especially My people…to really pay attention because that dumb-azz fool in the White is putting this entire nation in a lot of danger with his Fake-azz alpha wannabe threats. Shooting off his mouth with absolutely NO awareness of, OR regard for, the consequences of his ignorant-azz foolishness.
An ignorant man with power, and a ton of insecurities, is a very dangerous man.