Today President Trump, Secretary Pete Hegseth, General Dan Caine and CIA Director John Ratcliffe gave a press conference to talk about the rescue of two American airmen in Iran. It is very much worth watching. In the video below, it begins at around the 37 minute mark. The story is thrilling, and General Caine in particular does a great job of narrating it:
The New York Times has been promoting the idea that for the U.S. to bomb Iranian power plants and bridges would be a “war crime.” Yesterday’s Times email bore the subject heading “Trump revels in threats to commit war crimes in Iran.” In today’s press conference, a New York Times reporter asked President Trump whether he is concerned about committing war crimes by bombing power plants and bridges.
So, what defines bombing power plants or bridges as a war crime? One of the Geneva Conventions, presumably. Is there some reference to power plants and bridges in one of the conventions? I don’t think so. Apparently some people allege that any damage to “civilian infrastructure” is a war crime. I don’t think any of the Conventions say that, either.
But when was there last a conflict in which the parties didn’t damage civilian infrastructure? Isn’t that standard procedure? Ukraine, so beloved by liberals, has repeatedly attacked Russian infrastructure. Earlier today, Ukraine carries out fresh drone attacks on Russian oil facilities. Also: Ukraine strikes Russian Shatura power plant in the Moscow region.” And Ukraine blows up two key Russian bridges. So have all those liberals with Ukrainian flags on their Facebook pages been endorsing war crimes?
And let’s not start on World War II. The fire bombing of Dresden, Hiroshima and Nagasaki, war crimes? I suspect most liberals would say Yes. But it went far beyond that, per Google’s AI:
Allied forces heavily bombed German industrial infrastructure, including power plants, particularly in the later stages of World War II, as part of a broader strategic bombing campaign aimed at paralyzing Germany’s war economy, transportation, and fuel production.
Does the New York Times accuse Franklin Roosevelt and Dwight Eisenhower of war crimes? If not, why not? Late in that war, some Jewish groups implored the Allies to bomb German rail facilities–civilian infrastructure–that, among other things, transported Jews to death camps. Would bombing rail lines have been a war crime, condemned by the New York Times?
The Times isn’t serious, of course. They had no problem with Bill Clinton bombing an aspirin factory or Barack Obama bombing God knows what. In the last year of his administration, Obama dropped at least 26,172 bombs on seven countries. Do you suppose they hit some civilian infrastructure? The Times couldn’t care less about “war crimes,” and it doesn’t seem to bother them that actual war crimes, not fake war crimes, are the only mode of combat known to the mullahs. They don’t care about any of that. They just hate Donald Trump.
