427
Trump threats cause dilemma for US officers: disobey orders or commit war crimes
(www.theguardian.com)
this post was submitted on 07 Apr 2026
427 points (99.8% liked)
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These types of articles are annoying at this point -- the sort of appeal to morality things, based on essentially dead 'world order' concepts. Even when there was a quasi functional set of agreements in place, America just veto'd any attempt to hold it accountable anyhow. International law, or any law really, is largely based on some sort of 'force' that gives it authority -- in a country, that force is generally the state/police, and internationally it was generally the US-lead coalition of western nations. That authority died in 2025.
We've already seen the USA/Hegseth drag all his generals into a room and tell them to not be 'burdened by rules of engagement', encouraging them to commit war crimes openly in order to instill terror in others. Anyone who disagreed with his speech was basically shown the door. This was like a year ago even, it's not 'new'.
The USA basically shredded any moral dilemmas/debates in the process, and burnt the soft power they'd been cultivating for decades/generations in early 2025. What's the point of saying it's wrong based on an old, defunct system that they've already abandoned? If anything, the American right wing will likely cheer that they're getting these sorts of angsty pearl clutching responses from the left / foreign liberal powers. Trump quite literally bragged about America's war crimes in Venezuela during his state of the union address, cracking jokes to which all the republicans laughed and applauded. Trump's threats about Iran's civilian infrastructure, and the bets on whether he'll drop nukes -- these are things that the right wing / Americans want to see happen. They think it's right to do it.
So really, the article shouldn't be about "Oh No!! International Law may be violated!", but rather, "Why should people care about international law being violated, when they've already asserted that they disagree with that law and its results?". Like if/when Trump drops nukes on Irans civilian power plants/water desalination plants etc.... what then? Is there some sort of accountability that's gonna suddenly show up? Prolly not.
the solution would be an UN operation against the united states. They can't take all of us out.
You’d have 100 million Americans on your side even. Their issue is weak leadership telling them to wait wait wait to vote.
I agree with your assessment and i share your fury about the situation.
One observation: repetition works. It may be hard to fathom, but lots of people voted for trump without any understanding of the world. lots of his supporters are evil, but some are stupid/ignorant/confused/misguided. trump’s support is falling - i won’t rule out that labeling his crimes and repeating the message that trump is a criminal may be working.
The international order did not die in 2025, or rather it was on its death bed since long before then. But yes I agree.
The international order did not die in 2025, or rather it was on its death bed since long before then. But yes I agree.