Legal experts say attacking Iran’s infrastructure would constitute a war crime – but would military officers be held responsible?

Donald Trump’s threats to carry out mass bombing of civilian infrastructure in Iran present US military officers with a dilemma: disobey orders or help commit war crimes.

It is an urgent matter for the US chain of command. In an expletive-laden threat, Trump set a Tuesday 8pm Washington time deadline for the Iranian government to open the strait of Hormuz or face “Power Plant Day, and Bridge Day, all wrapped up in one”.

There is little debate among legal experts that such an attack on the life-supporting infrastructure for 93 million Iranians would constitute a war crime.

“Such rhetorical statements – if followed through – would amount to the most serious war crimes – and thus the president’s statements place service members in a profoundly challenging situation,” two former judge advocate general (JAG) officers, Margaret Donovan and Rachel VanLandingham wrote on the website Just Security on Monday.

“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.”

  • teyrnon@sh.itjust.works
    11·
    2 days ago

    Oh, and all citizens are guilty of their government’s crimes? I seem to recall some shit about Canada by the way. Not so polite eh?

    • NotSteve_@lemmy.ca
      2·
      2 days ago

      I’m not sure we’re talking about the same people here. I’d hesitantly lend more sympathy to an American soldier more broadly fighting in this war but not to those who directly commit war crimes whether that be shooting (and worse) children or knowingly dropping bombs on schools or hospitals.

      Anyone who doesn’t immediately know that’s wrong has something severely wrong with them

      edit: and also yeah, regarding your point about Canada doesn’t really change anything. I’d feel exactly the same way regarding any Canadian soldier doing the same thing. While Canada is feeling quite nice right now compared to the USA, we’ve done and continue to do some absolutely vile shit, no question

      • teyrnon@sh.itjust.works
        3·
        2 days ago

        You are right, I went off half cocked there. I mean I agree, these people should have known better when they signed up to be perfectly honest. Now are they stupid? The answer is yes, but more charitably we could call that misguided. And or self-interested. Nevertheless, we can’t reject everybody that is on some issues while agreeing with us on others, not if we want to win, and we should cooperate on what we agree on, when it comes to that.