Senator Chris Murphy says he has been briefed on the US’s plan to restart the war on Iran, calling it “insane” and saying it would lead to a “devastating escalation”.
“You’ve heard a preview that it would be a short-duration plan. I’ll just say this: their plan is insane,” Murphy said, speaking at an event organised by the Middle East Institute in Washington, DC, on Wednesday.
“It will lead to devastating escalation and the likely destruction of our commitment to the rule of law.”
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“There’s been open reporting as to what we may be planning and the civilian infrastructure we may be targeting,” Murphy said.
"They’ve been asked by the president to develop a plan - whether they believe it will work or not, I do not know. But the plan that they have developed will lead, in my view, to a prolongment and an escalation of this war that will be devastating for our security interests.
“We are seeing the president ready another devastating military campaign after the election, just as illegal as the first iteration was at the time, where Americans are fed up with this war.”
I used to think we were above such things. And I think that generally speaking we did try, although not very hard. Civilian casualties in Iraq/Afghanistan, for example. I’m pretty sure we generally didn’t go out doing much of that on purpose, although I know we sure didn’t try hard to avoid it.
Russia is a step beyond, for now, as they actively target civilians. Whereas, for example, I think the school bombing we did was stupidity/ineptitude.
And even now, I don’t think we’re going to target civilian housing or hospitals or schools purposefully, but we’re getting a step close if we do target civilian infrastructure.
But when you get down to this level of detail in the “not as bad as” discussion… it’s getting pretty bad.
Targeting civilian infrastructure is targeting civilians. Bridges have people crossing them, power plants have civilian workers.
Yes.
But if you can’t consider a difference between targeting a bridge and targeting a school of children, then you’re rather missed my point.