Suppose Iran dispatched operatives to Mexico, where, from the Texas border, they fired a missile at an American base and, unintentionally but carelessly, demolished a nearby American school, killing 175 people.
What if they then blew up fuel depots, showering a chemical rain on residents? Then struck homes, schools and clinics, as Iran’s leader warned that “death, fire and fury” would so pulverize America that it could never be rebuilt?
In that case, President Trump — and all of us — would howl at outrageous attacks on innocent civilians. And we’d be right.
War achieved an industrial savagery in World War II: After the firebombing of Tokyo, the United States boasted that it might have killed more people (perhaps 100,000) in six hours than ever before in history. After the war, in sober reflection, the United States helped lead a global effort to try to tame the savagery of conflict and, in particular, to shield civilians. The additional protocols to the Geneva Conventions, for example, stipulate that it is impermissible to destroy infrastructure that civilians depend on — such as “drinking water installations.”
