Trump spends weekend threatening to commit war crimes

Donald Trump interspersed his weekend golfing outings with threats to bomb 52 Iranian sites should the country seek retaliation for the American attack that killed a top Iranian general last week. Those bombings could violate international treaties that protect civilians.

“Let this serve as a WARNING that if Iran strikes any Americans, or American assets, we have 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,” Trump tweeted on Saturday, capitalizations his own. “The USA wants no more threats!”

Trump’s comments came after Iran threatened to respond in kind to Trump’s order to murder Qassem Soleimani, an Iranian military leader who is responsible for a number of American deaths over the years.

However, indiscriminately bombing cultural sites that could lead to the death of innocent civilians would violate the 1954 Hague Convention, which says cultural sites should be protected in times of war.

Trump officials tried to backtrack on Trump’s assertion that he is willing to commit war crimes, denying that the United States would attack Iranian cultural sites.

“President Trump didn’t say he’d go after a cultural site – read what he said,” Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Fox News, blatantly lying about a tweet in which Trump explicitly says that he would go after cultural sites.

And, as Trump often does, he directly contradicted Pompeo Sunday night, telling reporters on Air Force One that he does in fact intend to attack Iranian cultural sites.

“They’re allowed to kill our people. 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 sites? It doesn’t work that way,” Trump said, wrongly saying that he could commit war crimes because other countries do.

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.