Trump, Hegseth and the Language of War Crimes

He’s out of ideas, a mind running on empty.  Increasingly, he is also short of reason, zapped by geopolitical addling and meddling.  Now that US President Donald J. Trump has reached an uneasy understanding with Teheran that a two-week ceasefire should apply to the warring parties (Israel, as usual, has its own elastic interpretation as it continues attacking Lebanon), it is worth considering the warring language he has been using since February 28.  Of note is the shrill wording of various ultimata he has directed at Iran. On April 7, the President seemed to flirt with the notion of genocide in promising that “A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back.  I don’t want that to happen, […]