How Trump Threatening Iranian Cultural Sites Sabotages American Values

The White House says the conflict with Iran is about protecting America. How does making the case for war crimes do that?

On Saturday night, less than 48 hours after a U.S. missile took out Iranian general and Quds Force commander Qasem Suleimani, President Trump was already threatening reprisals should Iran retaliate for the assassination. Tweeting from Mar-a-Lago, which seems to be his favorite place from which to launch airstrikes on the Middle East, Trump even suggested that the list of Iranian targets includes sites that are “important to Iran & the Iranian culture.” On Sunday morning, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who appears to have been charged with doing PR for the Suleimani strike, refused to contradict the president, even when Jake Tapper pointed out (correctly) that targeting cultural sites would constitute a war crime. (This is stipulated in the 1954 Hague Convention, to which the United States is a signatory.) Challenged on this on Sunday night, Trump, finally returning to Washington from his Florida holiday, doubled down. “They’re allowed to kill our people,” he said. “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.”

This is not the first time that Trump has suggested the United States deliberately engage in war crimes. In 2015, then candidate Trump proposed a barbaric strategy to combat terrorists: “Take out their families,” he said. The difference between then and now, however, is that Trump’s comments in the wake of Suleimani’s death are no longer the off-hand musings of a wannabe tough guy; this time, Trump is arguing for war crimes as president of the United States.

Of course, this is deeply problematic on several levels.

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