"No Stupid Rules of Engagement": Ahead of Iran War, DoD Halted Efforts to Limit Civilian Deaths

[Uncle Joe]

Iranian authorities say the U.S. and Israel killed more than 1,300 civilians, striking over 10,000 civilian sites during the first 12 days of the war. This comes as Israel escalates attacks on Lebanon, killing at least 570 since the war began and displacing nearly 800,000 people. As President Trump dodges questions on how long the war will continue, reporting by Akbar Shahid Ahmed, senior diplomatic correspondent for HuffPost, has revealed that "a lot of the experts on international law, the laws of war, international humanitarian law have quietly been leaving the Trump administration."

[Walleye]

1. They got the bloodlust, they don't care who they kill

Remember they said sinking the ship was more �fun�. So I guess they just joined up to have fun. Of course, we only have Trump version of the story. in the relentless pursuit of projection, they use the word stupid a lot. These stupid people.

[AloeVera]

2. Oh but it's IRAN hitting civilian buildings!!

Right??

Striking over 10,000!! CIVILIAN sites in a deliberate, targeted manner and killing 1,300 civilians is a little different than what Iran is doing.

But no shortage of outrage and cries of war crimes!! when an apartment near the 5th Fleet and NAVCENT is struck with no casualties.

I look forward to seeing the condemnation and outrage here.


I mean this SHOULD be condemned, right?

[eppur_se_muova]

3. DoD -- Department of Death ? nt

[xocetaceans]

4. While that analysis is important, the main question is "In what future world will the US hold itself accountable . . .

. . . under any sort of international law?"

Accountability is out of fashion here. People call Trump "President Trump", but he is an insurrectionist. He belongs in prison. The courts here are so broken that even the simple act of convicting him for his obvious crimes was not possible as things stood and as they still currently stand.

Furthermore, that is not even the first case of a serious lack of accountability. Who wrote the torture memos that granted the Bush Administration the legal 'cover' to practice forms of torture? Were those individuals prosecuted or promoted? Where is the US Senate's full report on torture during W's Administration? Has anyone again considered prosecuting W for those war crimes which were committed under his leadership?

There is no systemic form of accountability available. In lieu of that more formal and judicial accountability and because we seem generally to ignore possible consequences (some to be expected, some completely disconnected from our common worldviews), it seems likely that the US has another large-scale terrorist event awaiting us in the future. Bin Laden's complaints that motivated 9/11 were less accessible to our perspectives, but striking a girls' school and killing over 160 would seem an undeniably motivating factor to someone who would want to seek revenge. Even if the Iranian military is incapable of finding a way to seek revenge, the fact that Trump chose this conflict, places all the blame on us, and that offers a clear, diffuse target to anyone or anyone's group who would either want revenge or even just want a cause about which to coalesce.

Aside from the serious issues related to the morality of all of that, Trump's severe incompetence as President has degraded the ability of the DHS to protect the US and people in the US from attacks. So, not only has Trump given others a cause to attack the US, but he simultaneously has weakened our ability to defend against such an attack.

Given the last twenty years of US political history, does anyone expect this delusional lack of accountability and its ramifications to change any time soon? I don't.

[ChicagoTeamster]

5. That's what Hegseth said. The US won't follow any treaties that get in the way. No rules of engagement.

His Christian Nationalist beliefs say that as a white American male he and others like him have Dominion over others. That's why the Trump administration doesn't like news organizations that published pictures of him with alcohol or with his white supremacist tattoos.