{"id":67294,"date":"2020-01-06T05:17:57","date_gmt":"2020-01-06T05:17:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/zenpundit.com\/?p=67294"},"modified":"2020-01-06T05:17:57","modified_gmt":"2020-01-06T05:17:57","slug":"persepolis-for-instance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/zenpundit.com\/?p=67294","title":{"rendered":"Persepolis, for instance?"},"content":{"rendered":"

[ by Charles Cameron <\/strong>— which cultural heritage sites did you have in mind, Mr Trump? ]
\n.<\/p>\n

Persepolis, for instance?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

**<\/p>\n

So?<\/p>\n

The Golestan Palace<\/strong>, in the heart of Tehran? The Masjed-e Shah<\/strong> in Isfahan? The Hyrcanian Forests<\/strong>, or Lut Desert<\/strong>? I suppose Trump could bomb the Lut Desert without harming civilians, and wind would soon bring the dunes back into their miraculous order..<\/p>\n

Iran has 24 UNESCO World Heritage Sites<\/strong> all told.<\/p>\n

Let’s just say that it took ISIS <\/strong>to destroy the Temple of Bel<\/strong> in Palmyra<\/strong>, and the Taliban <\/strong>to demolish the Bamiyan Buddha<\/strong>.. <\/p>\n

**<\/p>\n

Of possible legal relevance<\/a>:<\/p>\n

After an al-Qaeda affiliated group destroyed ancient religious monuments in Timbuktu, Mali, in 2012, the International Criminal Court took on a unique criminal case: prosecuting cultural destruction.<\/p>\n

Though it generally focuses on human rights violations, the ICC charged the leader of the jihadist group, Ahmad al-Faqi al-Mahdi, with a war crime for destroying cultural artifacts in Timbuktu.<\/p>\n

The case was the first criminal charge of its kind. It “breaks new ground for the protection of humanity’s shared cultural heritage and values,” UNESCO Secretary-General Irina Bokova said at the time. Al-Mahdi eventually pleaded guilty and was sentenced to nine years in prison.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Okay, a precedent of sorts has been set.<\/p>\n

**<\/p>\n

BTW, Mike Knights<\/strong> suggests the “best way to make sure Trump does do something you oppose – say bomb cultural sites – is to engage him in a twitter war about it. The way insiders get him to forget about a course of action is to stop mentioning it.”<\/p>\n

He did his PhD on “target selection and vetting,” and tells us<\/a>:<\/p>\n

It’s a very laborious, mechanical process for fixed sites, & there is a huge constantly-refined no-strike list. Judge Advocate Generals are involved in all target lists.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Sometimes POTUS crosses red lines and erases norms, sometimes not.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[ by Charles Cameron — which cultural heritage sites did you have in mind, Mr Trump? ] . Persepolis, for instance? ** So? The Golestan Palace, in the heart of Tehran? The Masjed-e Shah in Isfahan? The Hyrcanian Forests, or Lut Desert? I suppose Trump could bomb the Lut Desert without harming civilians, and wind […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2050,701,309,215,1314,627,2052,89,93,1047,2053,1967,2051,1460,1,1057],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-67294","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bamiyan","category-buddhism","category-criminals","category-culture","category-donald-trump","category-doublequotes","category-eliot-cohen","category-international-law","category-iran","category-isis","category-johns-hopkins-sais","category-law","category-palmyra","category-potus","category-uncategorized","category-unesco"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/zenpundit.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67294","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/zenpundit.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/zenpundit.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zenpundit.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zenpundit.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=67294"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/zenpundit.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67294\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":67311,"href":"https:\/\/zenpundit.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67294\/revisions\/67311"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/zenpundit.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=67294"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zenpundit.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=67294"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zenpundit.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=67294"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}