Is Persepolis burning?

In April 2011, I visited Iran.  I posted extensively on my visit, if you're interested.  It was one of the most interesting and rewarding visits to a foreign country I've ever experienced.

We saw the ruins of the Persian palace at Persepolis, burned by Alexander the Great, but still extensive.  We visited the enormous shrine to the Shi'ite imam Reza in Mashad.  We visited the tomb of Cyrus the Great, an emperor praised by the Hebrews in the Old Testament book of Ezra.  We visited the incredibly beautiful city of Isfahan, capital of Persia under the Safavid dynasty in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.

These are all presumably targets to be destroyed by President Trump if Iran acts out, according to repeated presidential tweets, following Trump's assassination of one of Iran's generals.  Iran has 24 UNESCO World Heritage Sites.  We haven't been told how many are due for destruction at Mr. Trump's whim -- but he has 52 sites that will be destroyed.  He has them on a list, he has them on a list.

Modern day Iran under the Islamic Republic is only a few decades old.  These sites -- many of them -- were built millennia ago, by pre-Islamic Persians.  They are considered treasures by the entire world, as much as the Louvre in Paris and the pyramids in Egypt.  We would destroy our own cultural heritage by damaging or destroying them -- just as we did by fire bombing Dresden at the end of World War II.

But there's more.  Trump's tweets on Twitter -- his childishly-drafted equivalent of press releases -- suggest we will hit civilian targets.  When I was in Iran, including Tehran, in 2011, I was overwhelmed by the friendliness of the Iranian people.  They knew I was an American, and yet -- despite all reasons to act otherwise -- they were relaxed, laid back, and often very humorously funny.  Especially in the cities, the very large educated middle classes were sympathetic to the West.  They were our hope for Iran's future, as the burning embers of the Islamic revolution died down.

And yet Trump would kill them without hesitation.  News reports indicate that, like nothing else, he has united the country against the United States.  He killed the nuclear limitation treaty with Iran.  He seems intent on ensuring that Iran stays a perpetual enemy of America.

Trump has an emotional need for enemies, for people to bully and to ridicule.  Things haven't been going well for the Chosen One.  He no doubt is upset.  He has no self-control.  He will do what he will do.  Iran is his chosen enemy in the Middle East.

His tweets over this past weekend smell of war crimes.  Destruction of cultural sites is a war crime.  Killing of civilians without military justification is a war crime.  Ordering such acts is a war crime.  Carrying out such orders is a war crime.

Mr. Trump probably feels safe.  He just finished pardoning men convicted of war crimes in the course of military actions.  He has the constitutional power to pardon anyone, to pardon his entire cabinet and all his generals, if that becomes necessary.

I know my blog is read by nearly as many people overseas as it is by Americans.  I apologize if I seem unpatriotic.  But I find it difficult to stand quietly and watch what this man is doing to my country and to our world.  He is ignorant and mentally lazy and highly insecure emotionally.  But, because of all of the above, he is dangerous.