Only the demented
Simon Jenkins in the Guardian:
Donald Trump’s threat to destroy the sites of ancient Persia should send a shiver down the spine of any civilised person. How can anything justify American bombing of Persepolis or the mosques of Isfahan? Only the demented can see them as “threatening America”. It is on the same ethical plane as the Islamic State vandalism of Palmyra and Mosul.
And the Taliban’s destruction of the Bamiyan Buddhas, and other Islamists’ destruction of shrines in Timbuktu.
The destruction of cultural artefacts in war is specifically outlawed under the Hague convention of 1954 and subsequent protocols. It ranks with genocide, chemical weapons and the “strategic” bombing of civilians as beyond the pale of human behaviour. The US does not recognise most of these treaties as it concedes extraterritorial sovereignty, but it normally obeys them.
…
Retaliation against sites termed by Trump as “important to Iran & the Iranian culture” is a new escalation. Few hands are clean in this area of conflict. Britain’s terrorist bombing by the RAF against Germany in the second world war was blatantly aimed at historic towns. Arthur “Bomber” Harris, the head of RAF Bomber Command, held that destroying Germany’s heritage would break the enemy’s spirit and force it to surrender. That he – and Winston Churchill – thought bombing Lubeck, Nuremberg and Dresden would somehow persuade Adolf Hitler of the error of his ways shows only that war drives men insane. Hitler merely retaliated with the Baedeker raids on English cathedral cities.
Harris is born again in Trump. Nothing could be more calculated to bond Iranians to their leaders – and demand revenge – than the destruction of their history. Policy should be aimed at precisely the reverse, creating conditions in which opposition to the military/clerical regime can prosper and strengthen. Bombing Persepolis would not only be grotesque, it would be utterly counterproductive. It is the act of a belligerent personality craving war.
I don’t think he craves war, I think he craves Total Domination. He’s too brain-rotted to grasp that war is what he will get.
In my opinion it’s entirely possible that the reference to “sites important to Iran and the Iranian culture” is primarily intended as a dog whistle to the fervent crowds at the rallies: Mecca. Let’s threaten to bomb Mecca and see those Mooslims quake in fear.
It was a wish oft expressed after 911, and Trump, as we know, still seems to be stuck on arguments, talking points, and popular understandings from at least a decade or two ago.
Well, I agree that that’s entirely possible, but I also think it doesn’t change anything. Just for one thing, it could be what Trump had in mind when he said it without ruling out additional meanings. It’s not as if his thought process is consistent enough for that.
But also…possible but not likely, in my view. I don’t think he would say “cultural” if he meant Mecca. He probably heard some goon on Fox saying we should hit their cultural sites – then maybe asked someone in the room what those were and heard about Persepolis and Isfahan and decided yeah, let’s smash those.
Very likely. He remembers the distant past, and he remembers what he saw on television last night. Weeks of careful intelligence briefings … “Huh?”
But mostly only those parts that involved him, especially involved people saying nice things about him.
Yes, the distant personal past, which I think is what Sastra meant – it’s a symptom of Alzheimer’s. Childhood memories are the last to go.
It’s the paradox of wartime thought, isn’t it? The enemy is believed (or at least claimed) to be simultaneously (1) implacable in their evil agenda and nonreceptive to reason or diplomacy; and (2) so fragile that one good punch will cause them to abandon their agenda and come whimpering to the peace table.
I suppose that’s not technically a paradox, in that the existence of such a nation is not logically impossible. But it sure contradicts lived experience.
Well, wartime thought for people who don’t have much of a habit of thinking carefully.
When (2) doesn’t pan out, the existence of (1) provides an excuse to keep on punching.
@Sastra
#1
Mecca is in Saudi Arabia, one of our allies. Does Trump really want the entire Muslim world against us?
@Colin Day #10
I know a lot of Trump supporters do indeed want the entire Muslim world against us, in so much as it’s a stepping stone in their ultimate goal too just eliminate the entire Muslim world.
Actually, all the ones I know already believe the entire Muslim world is against us. I’m surprised they’ve put up with Trump’s pandering to Saudi Arabia, unless they are astute enough to think…oil.
Sorry, the ‘Baedecker raids’ came before the RAF campaigns against German cities.
And the Germans were waging ‘cultural’ war long before Hitler.
Oh derp, you’re right; I should have spotted that.
Coventry: November 1940. Dresden: February 1945.
Jeezus. <GEOGRAPHY? That’s for eggheads and elitists. He’s only ever going to see whatever map is included in his Happy Meal. Even then, he’ll fix it with his Sharpie.
And wasn’t Ukraine an ally?
Yes, but Saudi has more oil.