On the President’s Threat That “A Whole Civilization Will Die Tonight”

New York City Bar Association Statement

This morning, following a series of escalating threats amidst the war against Iran, President Donald Trump wrote: “A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again.” At this moment, we must state loudly and clearly that the killing of an entire “civilization” would clearly constitute a genocide, the most heinous of crimes.  The New York City Bar condemns these threats in the most urgent and unequivocal terms. The President, Congress, and the entire nation, must renounce these threats. And our country’s armed forces must be prepared to resist illegal orders to carry out a genocidal attack or any similar blanket attacks on civilian infrastructure amounting to war crimes.