On Tuesday morning, in a post referring to Iran, President Donald Trump threatened that “a whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again.” According to one of the top historians working today, Trump’s impulse toward “genocide” puts him in the same category as some of history’s most criminal dictators.
“These are not the words of Hitler, or Stalin, or Mao, or Pol Pot, or Assad, or Putin,” wrote Timothy Snyder, who specializes in the histories of Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union. “These are the words of the president of the United States.”
Snyder goes on to note that these are not “only words,” but warnings of an impending crime. “The reason we have a notion of genocide, and a convention on genocide,” he explained, “is to define certain actions as always and definitively wrong.”
If Trump does deliver on his promise to inflict mass murder, explained Snyder, “whatever happens tonight, or any other night in this war, is now legally defined by the president’s statement.” While according to the 1948 Geneva Convention it can be difficult to prove the “intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group,” Trump has now made that intent obvious.
“To bomb a bridge or a dam or a power plant or a desalinization facility, very likely a war crime in any event,” said Snyder, “could very well have a different legal significance, a genocidal one, if it takes place after the expression of genocidal intent by the commander and head of state.”
For Americans, wrote Snyder, this brings up two considerations.
First, for those in the military, it is vital to remember that “Article III of the Genocide Convention makes it clear that not only the person who issues the genocidal order is guilty.” Also guilty are those who carry out the orders, or are otherwise involved in any way, as “also defined as a crime are conspiracy to commit genocide, incitement to commit genocide, attempts to commit genocide, and complicity in genocide.” So those in government or military who further Trump’s genocidal designs could become ensnared in their legal consequences.
But beyond those in the military, Snyder asserted that all Americans should be concerned about how Trump’s actions and words have “changed our country.”
“He has changed us, because he represents us,” wrote Snyder. “We voted for him, or we didn’t vote and allowed him to come to power, or we didn’t do enough to stop him. These words are America’s words, until and unless Americans reject them…Neither the evil nor the good in our history determines who we are. It is what we do now.”
Synder suggests that Americans cannot count on their political leadership to take the necessary action to remove the president and officials who have supported him, and so it is up to the people to speak out against Trump “not only about crimes, but about their legal punishment.”