You know… I thought 2020 was going to be a good year, but no. It had to start out with #WW3 trending on Twitter, which has quickly become a widespread meme across many platforms and media. The event that this meme stemmed from, however, is far from a joking matter. At the very end of last year, a drone strike in Baghdad killed Iranian Major General, Qassim Suleimani. The death of Suleimani has marked a serious change in the conflicts with the Iranian government and Trump’s actions have been highly questionable, from his threats to commit actual war crimes to the hypocrisy of his plans to attack Iran.
Let’s start with the threats to commit war crimes. Recently, Trump tweeted about destroying Iranian cultural sites saying, “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.”
First, he references the Iranian hostage crisis, which not only took place 40 years ago but also was perpetrated by civilians not the Iranian government, and then he goes on to say that he wants to target cultural sites. Whether it is a time of war or a time of “peace” — though I wouldn’t say that we are at a time of peace — it is outlawed by the Geneva Convention to specifically target non-combatants and cultural sites. Trump expressed his frustrations to a group of journalists saying essentially the Iranian government can do whatever attacks they want, but when the U.S. wants to do the same, it is seen as unacceptable.However, Trump completely missed the point. Iran was not threatening to destroy places of cultural significance to the U.S., like the Statue of Liberty, the U.S. military hasn’t had a problem with targeting mosques for drone strikes across the Middle East.
Trump’s entire presidency has been about making America great again, and do you want to know what a great way of doing that would be? Leading by example. Instead of threatening these governments or trying to destroy them, help them. Show them how they can do better, follow the rules that the U.S. has agreed to instead of just backing out of them. Trump would never admit he is wrong, but even with this, he has changed his mind. During Obama’s presidency, Trump ridiculed him saying that Obama would start a war with Iran to avoid criticism, yet isn’t that exactly what Trump is doing right now? Threatening war to draw attention away from his impeachment.
Photo: H. Almasi
