Holy Shit
In a continued move toward the reunification of church and state, the Trump administration celebrated Easter by going full resurrection in a series of religious posts from various departments. But an Easter morning they hoped would commemorate a rising, served instead as a stark reminder of the depths of our descent. In his own unhinged, religion-charged post, the president of the United States threatened war crimes. “Tuesday will be Power Plant Day, and Bridge Day, all wrapped up in one, in Iran. There will be nothing like it!!! Open the Fuckin’ Strait, you crazy bastards, or you’ll be living in Hell — JUST WATCH. Praise be to Allah.” (Anyone remember when Trump told Iranian protesters HELP IS ON ITS WAY?) What’s the big deal? It’s just Trump being Trump. It will all get lost in the news cycle anyway. Well, it is a big deal for several reasons. It’s yet another crazy, terrible hit on American leadership, in which most of our allies have already lost faith. It’s a signal to our enemies that the rules of war are no longer in play. It’s a message that could potentially galvanize the Iranian people against American efforts, even those predisposed to support efforts to rid their country of a terrible regime. It’s a detriment to American service personnel who are being associated with, and potentially being ordered to commit, war crimes. And it’s a reminder that the most powerful country on Earth is being run by a lunatic, and no matter how offensive he is or how serious a threat he poses, his enablers will continue to enable him. NYT (Gift Article): Trump Revels in Threats to Commit War Crimes in Iran. “The American president has been unambiguous in his disdain for international law. In a two-hour Oval Office interview in January with The New York Times, Mr. Trump declared, ‘I don’t need international law.’ When asked whether there was any limit on his global powers, he said, ‘Yeah, there is one thing. My own morality.'” Let’s hope America can resurrect itself from that.
+ “As former uniformed military lawyers who advised targeting operations, we know the president’s words run counter to decades of legal training of military personnel and risk placing our warfighters on a path of no return.” Just Security: When War Crimes Rhetoric Becomes Battlefield Reality.
+ NYT (Gift Article): On Iran, Trump Keeps World Off Balance With Ever-Changing Threats. (Off balance. I guess that’s one way to put it.)
+ Iran rejects latest ceasefire proposal, calling instead for permanent end to the war. Here’s the latest from AP, The Guardian, and NBC.
