{"text":[[{"start":7.63,"text":"The words were some of the most shocking ever issued by a modern-day US president. “A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again,” Donald Trump wrote early on Tuesday. Two days earlier, he had warned in an expletive-laden post that “Tuesday will be Power Plant Day, and Bridge Day . . . in Iran,” if Tehran did not reopen the Strait of Hormuz."}],[{"start":32.26,"text":"Those threats were not fulfilled, and the White House argued that the US president’s “tough rhetoric” achieved its purpose: coercing Iran into a ceasefire “deal” — though that deal delivered neither the president’s main stated war aims nor even, with any certainty of durability, his immediate goal of allowing shipping through the strait. "}],[{"start":55.25,"text":"Yet Iranian civilian infrastructure, including gas, petrochemical and steel plants, as well as research institutes and universities and its biggest bridge were already bombed during the US-Israeli war; Iran too retaliated by hitting civilian infrastructure across the Gulf. Together with his calls for mass strikes on infrastructure that would amount to war crimes, the president has done grave harm to the decades-long quest to enforce rules of war, and to America’s moral standing in the world."}],[{"start":90.2,"text":"After the horrors of the second world war, the US and other states signed the 1949 Geneva Conventions in an attempt to prevent any repeat of the atrocities. The Fourth Geneva Convention focused on protecting civilians — and distinguishing them from combatants."}],[{"start":108.88,"text":"Those rules have come under intense pressure in recent years. Russia has targeted Ukraine’s civilian energy grid in a cynical strategy of trying to break Ukrainians’ morale. The increasing reliance on air power and combatants’ presence among populations has certainly made the conduct of war more dangerous for civilians. But commitment to proportionality has also eroded. "}],[{"start":134.56,"text":"Israel’s conduct of its war in Gaza after Hamas’s horrific October 7 2023 attack has drawn accusations of genocide and led the International Criminal Court to issue arrest warrants for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for crimes against humanity and war crimes. The civil war in Sudan has seen multiple atrocities as fighting between the Sudanese Armed Forces and Rapid Support Forces — which has been accused of genocide — has caused massive deaths, displacement and famine in parts of the country."}],[{"start":170.24,"text":"Humanitarian law has, in truth, repeatedly come under strain, with the US often responsible. From Vietnam to Iraq and Afghanistan, America has been accused of harming civilians in ways that contravene the rules of war."}],[{"start":187.43,"text":"While this cannot excuse its prior behaviour, however, the US has after successive conflicts gone through soul-searching and tightened its military codes. Most recently, after a 2021 drone strike in Kabul killed 10 civilians, the Biden administration released an action plan designed to reduce civilian harm from future operations."}],[{"start":211.23000000000002,"text":"The Trump team has instead been retreating from international norms, and America’s own “secretary of war” Pete Hegseth told officers last year there would be “no more politically correct and overbearing rules of engagement”. He has reportedly rolled back much of the civilian harm mitigation plan. Asked this week if the president’s threats meant the US was surrendering the moral high ground, Trump’s press secretary Karoline Leavitt called the questioning insulting."}],[{"start":241.38000000000002,"text":"Alarmed by the erosion of the rules of conflict, nearly 100 states including France, China and Brazil have joined an initiative to strengthen humanitarian law. Without US moral leadership, though, such efforts may lack real substance. If the mightiest global military power is making little pretence of even trying to uphold the rules, the world is indeed a more dangerous place."}],[{"start":277.27,"text":""}]],"url":"https://audio.ftcn.net.cn/album/a_1775890552_8927.mp3"}