Historian and professor of strategic studies Phillips P. O'Brien is warning that President Donald Trump's military may be committing war crimes, and doing so seems to be “official†U.S. policy.
“The USA seems to have deliberately and with foresight, committed a war crime as an act of policy,†O'Brien writes at his Substack newsletter. “If this is right, and all evidence seems to say it is, committing acts of terror is now an acceptable method of war in the judgement of the US government and, by extension, the American people.â€
O'Brien points to the U.S. military's strike on “two reservoirs and a water treatment facility in southern Iran,†cutting off water to 20,000 civilians in what OBrien says is 115-degree heat, similar to America's Death Valley.
He explains that it likely was a deliberate attack because there are no military installations in the area, “and the destruction was precise.â€
It is “hard to see this as a mistake,†he writes. “The target was too specialized, too localized and the effect seems calibrated.â€
Asking, “Is It A War Crime?†O'Brien answers, “Without a doubt.â€
The U.S. “has attacked, seemingly deliberately, a facility vital to the maintenance of human life that has no discernible military utility. So yes, it is a war crime.â€
Making the act even more “perverse,†writes O'Brien, is that “this war crime was deliberately committed because Donald Trump is getting frustrated that the Iranian government is not doing what he wants them to do and that the Iranian military attacked a legitimate military target, a US Apache helicopter that was enforcing a blockade (an act of war remember) against Iran.â€
O'Brien calls it “typical, Trump,/organized crime style behavior.â€
Trump “attacks a small civilian facility as a threat and warning to Iran that he might go on and commit even greater war crimes if they do not do what he wants.â€
Later, “while speaking to Fox News reporters, Trump went ahead and said he might start mass attacks on Iran's bridges and electricity power generation.â€
“He also tweeted out that if Iran did not do what he wants it to do, that it would have to “pay the price†of their defiance,†says O'Brien.
He concludes that a “historic war crime†was committed “because the President of the USA can think of nothing better to do.â€
