When I was in the Army and when I was in the Navy, there was a lot of training and indoctrination on how a purely defensive war is not winnable. Guess what.
Although the country’s ship was under sanctions, my non-lawyer self has the idea the Republic of Palau is not one of the belligerants in this conflict.
It is sad and worrying that even the NYT cannot get its acronyms right. IRGC stands for Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps. It becomes hard to trust anything they write if they cannot name the main power base of the Iranian regime correctly.
I don’t think there is universal agreement about what the biggest threat in this volatile region is, not even among the Gulf states. Other threats worth fearing are Wahabbism, Israel’s militarism, Trump’s erratic antics, Putin’s revanchism (good thing he is busy in Ukraine, otherwise I would expect a Kuril Island style take over of northern Iran while they are surrendering in the south), secularism/wokeism/human rights (yes, there are people there who fear that), Kurdish independence, and perhaps Afghanistan and Pakistan can be considered part of the region too…
It becomes depressing when North Korea speaks the truth and the USA is in the wrong. But unfortunately yes, there is no way around it. This attack is illegal.
The author, Kenneth Roth, is a Guardian US columnist, visiting professor at Princeton’s School of Public and International Affairs, and former executive director of Human Rights Watch.
I can’t speak for the U.S., but Iran was the one who started this war by launching an unprovoked attack on Israel in 2024. I don’t see how Israel’s response can be considered illegal.
History did not begin on 7th october 2024.
Decapitating the Iranian regime while holding meetings in Geneva to negotiate is the diplomatic equivalent of a sucker punch. It is a bad sign when the stronger part in a dispute uses such a tactic.
It seems that USAF planes are falling out of the sky for no apparent reason.
This, from the BBC:
Some breaking news from Kuwait - a “several American fighter aircraft came down this morning”, says Kuwait’s Ministry of Defence.
The crews “survived unscathed”, and were evacuated and transferred to hospitals for health checks, it adds, and confirms the conditions of the crews as “stable”
The reason is known: friendly fire. The German Handelsblatt reports:
According to the US military, Kuwait ‘accidentally’ shot down three US fighter jets. This was announced on Monday by the military’s Central Command (Centcom), which is responsible for the region. All six crew members of the three fighter jets were able to escape and are in stable condition. The incident is being investigated.
We’re talking about legalities, here. A war continues until it ends. This war can’t end until Iran recognizes Israel and signs a peace agreement with it.
The shooting in Austin, Texas a short while ago that injured 14 and killed two, is being linked to terrorism now. Reports are now that it might have been because of the strikes on Iran.
Hahaha, that’s a good one - obviously, the answer is “no one”.
There is no such thing as a “universally agreed upon definition” of war or any other aspect of international diplomacy.
As @Alessan noted, you don’t even have both countries agreeing that one of the two sides is the country of Israel, Iran doesn’t recognize Israel to begin with (hence the term “Zionist Entity”).
Iran is actively taking steps to destroy Israel, through attacks with proxies that have gone on for many years uninterrupted. Israel is taking steps to stop them. If anyone had a problem with that, it’s really too bad for them.
Which raises an interesting point with regard to the United States. Is this an Israel/Iran war, in which the U.S. is just providing support? Or is the U.S. engaged in its own campaign for its own ends?
Usually Presidents speak to the American people about such things. Oftentimes from the Oval Office. Trump has given no clear explanation of what the U.S. is doing.
Lebanon, unhappy that Hezbollah is yet again dragging them into a war, has finally banned Hezbollah’s military activities. Can they enforce this ban? Of course not; that will probably remain Israel’s air force’s job.
Neither Israel (which is a sideshow, anyway) nor the US will keep their side of an agreement. Peace treaties are meaningless. The war will continue until they get bored and pick another target, no matter what Iran does. And resume when they feel like it, also regardless of what Iran does.
Iran has targeted Saudi oil refineries with a limited attack. Saudi Arabia warned them that should they do this again, the Saudis will join in the attacks on Iran.