Early Easter morning, President Donald Trump gave the nation the good news that a missing U.S. pilot had been dramatically rescued in a remote region of Iran.
He should have stopped there.
Instead, the president launched a profane rant threatening Iran to either open the Strait of Hormuz forthwith or he’ll order U.S. troops to destroy Iran’s power plants and infrastructure so much so that “you’ll be living in Hell. JUST WATCH. Praise be to Allah.”
If Iran does not change course by Tuesday evening, the president said, “we’re blowing up the whole country.”
Happy Easter, indeed.
In the six weeks since the United States and Israel launched their attack on Iran, the war has failed to meet their purported — and constantly shifting — goal of eliminating Iran as a potential threat through regime change and eradication of Iran’s nuclear capabilities.
Trump’s threats to bomb Iran’s plants, roads, bridges, desalination plants and other infrastructure constitute war crimes under every agreement in the books, including the Geneva Conventions, the Hague Conventions and the United Nations Charter.
Even in times of war, a country doesn’t deliberately attack civilians and civilian infrastructure. Nor does it rob another country of its resources, such as Trump has proposed by taking Iran’s oil.
Of course, flagrant violations exist, including Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and Israel’s nondiscriminatory attacks on Hamas in Gaza.
But to join that ignominious club should be beneath us.
When the U.S. first began attacking Iran on Feb. 28, Trump predicted long-suppressed Iranians would rise up and overturn the Khamenei regime and its powerful Revolutionary Guard army.
“The hour of your freedom is at hand,” he told them.
That has not happened.
Instead, killing Iran’s supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, has only strengthened the regime’s resolve and brought in his more radical son, Mojtaba.
Things are not going to plan. Our fear is there isn’t one. Last Thursday’s firing of the U.S. Army Chief of Staff, while war rages, is just the latest sign Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is panicking.
Iran appears willing to sabotage the global economy in its defense and the U.S. appears unable to turn down the temperature, raising the stakes for more extreme actions. There’s no impetus for change, either; with each day with oil above $100 a barrel and the Strait of Hormuz closed, Iran is convinced they’re winning.
