President Donald Trump doubled down Sunday night on his way back to the White House from Mar-a-Lago about bombing Iranian cultural sites.
In an appearance on "This Week," Pompeo said that the U.S. would "behave lawfully and behave inside the system," which directly contradicts what Trump has threatened to do if Iran retaliated against the United States.
Washington Post piece by White House reporter Seung Min Kim the threats by Trump have ignited questions about whether such a move would fall under war crimes.
“Those targets, and Iran itself, WILL BE HIT VERY FAST AND VERY HARD,” Trump tweeted. “The USA wants no more threats!”
"Trump’s threats and tough talk are emblematic of a president who has flouted the tenets of international and U.S. law on war crimes," the report said. "He has insisted that enhanced interrogation tactics such as waterboarding work, suggested killing terrorists’ families to fight the Islamic State and two months ago cleared three members of the U.S. armed services accused or convicted of war crimes over objections from senior military officials."
The Post noted that the 1954 Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property bans targeting a country's cultural sites as part of a military action. The United States didn't ratify the ban in 1954, despite helping draft the Hague Convention due to concerns about the Cold War. However, at the end of the ongoing fears of the former Soviet Union, the Department of Defense withdrew its objections, and the Joint Chiefs of Staff recommended the U.S. Senate ratify the convention. The Senate refused.
In April 2008, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee held a hearing on the treaty, and the full Senate gave its consent by Sept. 2008. The U.S. officially joined the 1954 agreement on March 13, 2009, as the 123rd nation to join the treaty.
There is a provision in the treaty that would give a waiver for “military necessity,” however, so Trump would have to seek that waiver.
Former U.S. national security officials said the Pentagon would not target cultural property because it would violate domestic and international laws.
“It would be a war crime. DOD has very professional planners who take their obligations and fidelity to law seriously,” said former National Security Council official Kelly Magsamen. “Any military planner, any U.S. soldier would know that. The fact that the president of the United States doesn’t know that is profoundly frightening to me. If he does know it and he’s still saying it, that’s even worse.”
Longtime military official David Lapan agreed, saying the U.S. wouldn't consider such an attack.
“When you’re talking about cultural sites, it can mean any number of things. But they’re not military targets,” he said.
Yet, that's exactly what Trump is doing.
The United States did not sign onto the Rome Statute that established the International Criminal Court in 2002, and neither has Iran. So, if the United States did breach the 1954 treaty, Iran couldn't file international charges in court.
“Targeting civilians and cultural sites is what terrorists do. It’s a war crime. Trump is stumbling into a war of choice,” tweeted Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT). “A war entirely of his making. A war that will get thousands of Americans killed. Congress must stop him.”
Trump had already indicated he doesn't take war crimes seriously when he went against military leaders and pardoned three military members. At least one of the pardoned war criminals has now joined Trump's campaign as a surrogate.