Donald Trump Has Joined Joe Biden in the Ranks of War Criminals
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Iran is the kid on the playground that isn’t intimidated by the bully and is willing—and able—to fight back.
President Donald Trump not only attacked a sovereign foreign state (Iran) without provocation, without congressional approval and without constitutional or moral justification, he has also joined the likes of Joe Biden and G.W. Bush in the ranks of war criminals.
I doubt that anyone in America is more qualified to speak to constitutional and legal (and unconstitutional and illegal) acts than legal scholar Judge Andrew Napolitano. In a recent interview with USMC Major/UN Weapons Inspector Scott Ritter, Judge Nap said the following:
What the president of the United States did was profoundly unconstitutional, absolutely unlawful, was an impeachable offense and was a war crime. Under our Constitution only the Congress can declare war, not the president. And Congress can only declare war on a country that poses an immediate and grave military threat to the United States of America. President Trump has started a war with Iran, which poses no threat—let alone immediate or grave—whatsoever to the national security of the United States of America. Under an unconstitutional statute, but still the law, the War Powers Resolution, the president is required to give notice to Congress and give Congress an opportunity to respond before he attacks a foreign country. He can carry out the response, but he has to tell Congress and give Congress an opportunity to respond. He not only ignored the Constitution, he ignored that law. As unconstitutional as it is—it hasn’t been tested by the courts—it is still the law. The president ignored it. Killing people and destroying property in another country without a just cause is a war crime. It is the moral and legal equivalent of a high crime and misdemeanor. It is an impeachable offense. And it is time for the American public and the Congress to do something about it.
There you have it: What Trump did in attacking Iran was not only unconstitutional, but it was also a war crime, “the moral and legal equivalent of a high crime and misdemeanor,” which is an impeachable offense.
Military scholar Scott Ritter followed the judge’s statement with his own analysis. Ritter said:
What they [the U.S. military] did is carry out an illegal war of aggression. It’s a war crime. It’s not just a war crime, Judge Jackson from the Nuremberg trial period, lead prosecutor of the Nazi war criminals, asserted that the war of aggression is the ultimate war crime, because from this war of aggression all other crimes emanate. This is what we did. I don’t know why Americans are proud of this. This is an act of perfidy, a surprise attack, an undeclared act of aggression that had no foundation in justification. Again, to justify something like this, which is the equivalent of what we would say a preemptive act of self-defense, so there needs to be an imminent threat, an imminent threat, that can only be dealt with through this act of aggression.
Iran was in the process of negotiations that would resolve all of the issues that could be perceived as a threat. So, there is no imminent threat.
Moreover, we know that the sites that had been targeted—three nuclear sites: Isfahan, Natanz and Fordow—were empty, that these strikes would have zero impact on an Iranian nuclear program that had long since been evacuated from these sites and sent to other locations. It’s come out that this strike plan, which was done in cooperation with Israel, was something that had been planned more than a year ago and actually been practiced by the United States and Israel. So, this was a pre-planned strike against three designated sites that had no military value. So, this is purely an act of theater, and any military commander that puts American lives at risk to carry out an act of political theater should literally have their commissions revoked and be drummed out of the service. There was no justification for this.
As I have documented in past columns, Donald Trump likes to portray himself as an emperor, and now he is acting like one.
Here is my four-minute statement on Trump’s unlawful attack against Iran from last Sunday.
Trump has now proven to the world that 1) He was a bald-faced liar when he told the American people he wanted to be a peace president, 2) He remains a bald-faced liar by attacking a country while his administration was in the process of negotiating a peace settlement with that nation, and 3) He is nothing more than a paid lackey of the Zionist government in Tel Aviv and the Israel lobby.
Virtually everything America does in the Middle East is at the behest of Israel. This U.S. attack against Iran was no different. As former CIA analyst Larry Johnson said, “Netanyahu calls the shots.”
The idea that Israel wants peace is ludicrous! Israel has been the world’s greatest destabilizing force since its inception in 1948. And it has also been the most belligerent military aggressor in the world since its inception.
Netanyahu himself will NEVER agree to peace, because keeping Israel at war is the only way that he can stay out of prison. If peace were to ensue in the Middle East, Netanyahu and his wife would immediately be tried and convicted of mass corruption and bribery charges and would spend the rest of their lives in prison. The only way Netanyahu stays out of jail is to keep his country at war.
And by keeping Israel at war, Netanyahu keeps America at war, because 1) Israel has zero military superiority in the Middle East without the backing of the United States, and 2) Netanyahu knows that the Israel lobby controls the politicians in Washington, D.C., including Donald Trump.
The nations of the world know that the Zionist government in Tel Aviv is a rogue government. It always has been and always will be. Its actions are constantly outside the rule of law: judicial, Natural, moral, civil and international. And it does so with impunity because the United States constantly runs interference and provides cover for it.
And now the combined administrations of Joe Biden and Donald Trump have turned the government in Washington, D.C., into a rogue state of its own. These two presidents—and the Congress that turns a blind eye to their unlawful conduct—have turned America’s foundational principles upside down.
Biden and Trump have taken the nation that was called the “City upon a Hill” by Puritan preacher John Winthrop—who penned this moniker to his sermon in 1630 to describe America as a bastion of hope, faith and freedom to the world, the nation whose birth certificate (the Declaration of Independence) announces its parents as being “the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God”—and turned that nation into a lawless, murderous lapdog of the rogue iniquitous State of Israel.
And what Netanyahu and his Zionist extremists in Israel want is to turn Iran into another Libya. They have said this openly and often. In other words, their goal is the total destruction of Iran. Why? Because Israel cannot control Iran, and this is unacceptable. Israel’s goal is total regional hegemony.
Israel is the elementary school bully that wants every kid on the playground in total submission to his will. Iran is the kid on the playground that isn’t intimidated by the bully and is willing—and able—to fight back.
In fact, by committing these war crimes against Iran, Israel and the U.S. are making it more likely that Iran will pursue a nuclear weapon, as this might be the only way Iran is assured of its own survival.
A case for a nuclear Iran
Kenneth Waltz, one of the most influential realist thinkers in international relations, argued in a controversial 2012 Foreign Affairs article titled “Why Iran Should Get the Bomb” that a nuclear-armed Iran might actually stabilize the Middle East, rather than destabilize it.
Waltz’s theory is rooted in neorealism (or structural realism), which sees the international system as anarchic, and posits that states act primarily to ensure their own survival. From this perspective, nuclear weapons are the ultimate deterrent, and their spread, under specific conditions, can actually lead to greater stability. Consider North Korea: since developing nuclear weapons and delivery systems, its behavior has arguably become more calculated and status-quo-oriented. It also encouraged Trump to extend an olive branch to Kim Jong-un.
Israel remains the sole nuclear power in the Middle East, a monopoly fostering strategic imbalance and absolute impunity. The emergence of a rival nuclear-armed state, even with minimal second-strike capability, would force belligerent sides to act with greater caution. Conflicts would likely be reduced to face-saving precision strikes, as seen with nuclear-armed India and Pakistan. Despite hosting radical militant groups, Pakistan has behaved as a rational actor within the nuclear matrix.
Similarly, a nuclear Iran could reduce its reliance on asymmetric proxy strategies – such as its support for Hamas or Hezbollah – because its security would primarily rest on deterrence.
Some critics however warn that if Iran acquires nuclear weapons, Saudi Arabia may rapidly follow suit. A moot point, except that Riyadh bankrolled Islamabad’s nuclear weapons program under America’s watch during the 1980s Soviet-Afghan War which featured beloved “anti-Soviet warriors” like Osama bin Laden!
There are also persistent reports which suggest that some Pakistani nuclear assets may already be stationed in Saudi Arabia, under the command of senior Pakistani officers. In the event of a regional nuclear escalation, Riyadh can simply request transfer at will.
Historical precedents also do not support alarmist non-proliferation fears. When North Korea acquired nuclear weapons, neither South Korea nor Japan followed suit. Deterrence, once established, tends to cool ambitions, especially when the cost of escalation becomes too high.
The discussion that is NEVER broached publicly is: Why can a belligerent/aggressor state such as Israel have nuclear weapons (which technology it stole from the United States) but a mostly passive state such as Iran cannot?
Remember that the only reason Iran has not tried to build a nuclear weapon to date (confirmed by National Intelligence Director Tulsi Gabbard only weeks ago) is due to the fact that such a weapon is seen as a violation of Shia Islamic law by Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.
However, the flagrant acts of international aggression demonstrated by Israel and the U.S. of late may indeed persuade Khamenei that the only way Iran can survive is that it has the deterrence of a nuclear weapon at its disposal. Notice that the U.S. is not using South Korea as a proxy for war with North Korea. Why not? Because North Korea has nuclear weapons.
Plus, Iran might not need to build a nuclear weapon in order to obtain one.
I have read reports that say several countries including Russia and Pakistan have already said they could provide Iran with some of their nuclear arsenal (as apparently Pakistan has already provided nuclear weapons to Saudi Arabia). This kind of military support between Sunni and Shia Muslims has the potential of putting the belligerent bully of the Middle East (Israel) permanently in its place.
The old saying still holds true: “Necessity is the mother of invention.” If Iran believes it is necessary to obtain a nuclear weapon for its survival, then obtaining one would be seen as its only option.
Wouldn’t it be ironic if the criminal conduct of Netanyahu and Trump to pound Iran into submission turns out to be the catalyst for Iran obtaining the ability to permanently maintain its sovereignty?
In the meantime, don’t expect Israel to abide by any ceasefire agreement brokered by Trump for very long. Again, Netanyahu needs war to stay out of prison. And Netanyahu also knows that no matter what Trump says, he is still in Israel’s pocket.
Israel’s (and thus America’s) war with Iran has just begun. Remember that Iran still has thousands of hypersonic ballistic missiles (which neither U.S. nor Israeli defenses can stop) that it can launch on Israel.
Furthermore, Iran has already inflicted so much damage in Israel that thousands of Israelis—including members of the Knesset—are fleeing the country. The truly paradoxical part of this story is that Iran has so crippled Israel economically, militarily, emotionally and financially that the Zionist state may actually be standing on its last legs.
But for America’s part, Donald Trump has allowed Israel to drag us into another “stupid” (Trump’s word) foreign war.
And, as did his predecessors, Donald J. Trump has now joined the ranks of war criminals.
Reprinted with permission from Chuck Baldwin Live.
Copyright © Chuck Baldwin
https://www.lewrockwell.com/
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