Top human rights lawyer says Americans could face Crimes Against Humanity accusations over Trump’s Syria betrayal
When a full accounting of the Trump administration is finally had, when the world truly comes to grips with the immense damage this trumped-up conman has inflicted on the world and the moral calculus is carried to its damning terminus the president’s treatment of the Kurds will surely rank as his greatest betrayal and evilest act.
To recap: the President of the United States, for no clear reason, moved a detachment of American troops so that the bloodthirsty Turkish dictator Recep Tayyip Erdoğan could invade Northeast Syria with the second-largest army in NATO and slaughter our Turkish allies, the brave people whose mothers and fathers, daughters and sons, died fighting ISIS. Beyond the obvious moral considerations, no American geopolitical objective was accomplished by this move. It was evil for evil’s sake.
Since our president is Donald Trump though, simply betraying our allies was not enough. Our odious leader has been smearing the Kurds since he first made his disastrous decision, repeatedly implying that they deserve what Erdogan is doing to them.
What kind of consequences can we hope for?
NBC News’s Richard Engel is now reporting that a top human rights activist thinks that Americans might end up facing accusations of “crimes against humanity” over the Trump administration’s decision to effectively greenlight the Turkish invasion.
Engel explains that U.S. officials knew about the atrocities carried out by the Turks, failed to do anything to stop them, and may have actually aided and abetted the crimes. He adds that he personally knows U.S. officials who are worried about how things will turn out.
The unfortunate reality, of course, is that it’s probably unlikely any of the cowards involved in this tragedy ever face justice in a judicial sense. That said, their legacies are something we can affect. The public record is a powerful force in shaping the actions of future generations. Trump and his enablers are war criminals in the truest sense of the expression. They must be remembered as such.
US officials tell me ALARM BELL RINGING among diplomats in DC that U.S. could one day be held responsible for Crimes Against Humanity for ethnic cleansing of Syrian Kurds by opening the door to it, watching it, encouraging it (Trump's tweets and statements) and not stopping it.
— Richard Engel (@RichardEngel) October 19, 2019
As Syrian Kurds face what seems to be ethnic cleansing, a top human rights lawyer told us Americans could face accusations of Crimes Against Humanity: for knowing about atrocities, failing to stop them, and potentially aiding and abetting. I know some US officials are concerned.
— Richard Engel (@RichardEngel) October 19, 2019
