As we wait to see what happens during the two week ceasefire announced by President Trump on Tuesday, the left wing media might have to take a break from the recent mantra, that such attacks may result in charges of "war crimes" against Trump. On Monday, before the cease fire, one cable TV host decided to educate his viewers, but for most others, it was the status quo.
On Monday night, CNN's Laura Coates Live noted that Trump had earlier repeated his threat to strike infrastructure inside Iran, and read from a post from one of the six Democrats who had made a video urging our military to disobey illegal orders.
COATES: The President repeated threats to strike civilian infrastructure, and we're talking about bridges, power plants, etc. He brushed off those strikes that could constitute some believe, war crimes. Senator Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.) put it this way. "When the smoke clears, it will be our service members, not President Trump or Secretary Hegseth, who could have to live with the consequences," specifically legal and mortal danger.
Coates then turned to Brad Bowman from The Foundation for Defense of Democracies, who didn't disappoint with patented Democrat talking points.
BOWMAN: There's a difference between combatants and noncombatants. There's a difference between military and civilian. And it's good to be strong, but it's better to be good and good nations don't deliberately hurt civilians. And if you hit nuclear power plants, you're going to deprive neonatal wards of energy that they need. You're going to deprive Iranians of clean water. You're going to hurt them.
We claim to be on the side of the Iranian people. So this will be counterproductive. This will turn Iranians against America. It will help the regime and their political warfare campaign, where they're trying to dupe Iranians into believing that we're the villains instead of them....As a general rule of thumb, if what your doing sounds a little bit like Vladimir Putin, stop and don't do it.
Nothing new. But earlier in the evening, on Jesse Watters Primetime on Fox News, Watters did what is hardly ever done by the media, he put the story in context. He played a short clip of Trump answering the left's new favorite question from a New York Times reporter at Monday's press conference.
NY TIMES REPORTER: Are you concerned that your threat to bomb power plants and bridges amount to war crimes.?
PRESIDENT TRUMP: Not at all. I hope I don't have to do it. Mentally these are disturbed people. If you think I'm going to allow them, powerful and rich, to have a nuclear weapon, you can tell your friends at the New York Times, not gonna happen.
Then Watters laid it out.
WATTERS: If knocking out power is a war crime Bill Clinton should be in The Hague. Slick Willie obliterated Serbia's power grid back in '99. Both the Bushes did it in Iraq. Lyndon Johnson hit a few power plants in North Vietnam. It was called Operation Rolling Thunder .These targets are selected as humanely as possible, considering dual use systems and the law of proportionality.
A report from Rand indicated that NATO attacked six types of fixed infrastructure targets in Serbia, The vast majority of these targets were of the “dual use” variety in that they served a civilian as well as a military functions. They included electric power and industrial plants. Sound familiar? Operation Rolling Thunder went on from 1965-1968 and a report by Grey Dynamics indicates that eventually, targets expanded to larger pieces of infrastructure, primarily the kind that enabled troop transport and included systems (seacraft, land craft, bridges, major roads) as well as petroleum, oil and lubricants. More familiarity?
And Watters had the audacity to remind viewers that it's Iran who has actually been doing what the left is so afraid Trump may do.
WATTERS: But the goal of war is to win. We aren't hitting their water, hospitals, or hotels. That's what Iran is doing to our allies. Remember, these aren't civilian power plants. The Guard runs them and gets dibs on the power. So hitting that type of target hurts the military. And their ability to fight back.
Watters was absolutely right to point out the hypocrisy of the left in labeling Trump's trumpeted actions as war crimes. But he shouldn't be the only one doing it. There is no fake news worse than fake news by omission.
