UC Irvine comedian Mark LeVine has produced another magnum opus for Al Jazeera (as he periodically does). This time, the much-maligned Middle East history professor goes after President Trump over his threat to bomb Iran if the mullahs retaliated against the take out of Qassem Soleimani. The below article was dated last month.
https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/threatening-culture-trumpian-times-200112111745709.html
LeVine's overly long article is a reaction to one sentence that Trump uttered during the tense period following Solemani's death.
"To recap, when Iran threatened retaliation for Soleimani's killing, Trump tweeted that the US had "targeted 52 Iranian sites ... some at a very high level and important to Iran & the Iranian culture," which would be "HIT VERY FAST AND VERY HARD" if Iran struck back."
Indeed, it was three words out of that quote that led LeVine to push the panic button: "...the Iranian culture....".
The result is a long recitation of the history of cultural sites falling victim to warfare. We also learn about the Aswan High Dam, which Trump did not bomb by the way-nor threaten to. Nor did he bomb any of Iran's cultural sites even though the Iranians did respond (sort of) with an attack on an American base in Iraq, which our forces knew was coming and were able to hunker down with no deaths. That was Iran's saving of face. Thankfully, events played out without a full-scale war. Maybe the President deserves some praise for that.
LeVine speculates that it was the US military commanders who refused to destroy Iran's cultural sites who saved the day from the Evil Trump. Yet, while giving them credit on one hand, he damns them with the other.
"The same military commanders who likely informed Trump they would not bomb Shiraz or Yazd had no problem reducing much of Iraq's infrastructure to rubble and engaging in an illegal war that has cost hundreds of thousands of Iraqi civilian lives, or more recently supporting the wholesale destruction of Yemen by the Saudis (never mind Israel's unending occupation or Egypt's imprisonment and torture of an entire generation of its citizens)."
And why did Trump "stand down" according to LeVine?
"Perhaps given his numerous international properties and business interests, he realised that committing indisputable war crimes would put a crimp in his post-presidential travel itinerary?"
Why yes, he would never again be able to visit the Trump Tower in Teheran. That must be the reason.
LeVine continues....
"For most of recorded history, the killing of non-combatants and destruction (and as often, looting) of cultural sites and treasures was a normal part of warfare. It was not until the American Civil War that the "wanton" targeting and/or mistreatment of civilians and the devastation of non-combat zones began to be explicitly prohibited during hostilities in the United States.
Similar prohibitions were elaborated in numerous international conventions and statutes focusing on the protection of civilians, private and public property and, most recently, sites of historic and cultural importance, most famously the 1899 and 1907 Hague Conventions, the Nuremberg Principles, the Geneva Conventions and the statute of the International Criminal Court.
But these regulations have all included important exceptions that excuse the killing of civilians and destruction of property if such actions are justifiable by "military necessity" - a loophole literally big enough to fly a long-range bomber through, as evidenced by such mass atrocities as the Allied and Axis "strategic bombing" campaigns during World War II, including the Atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and the carpet bombing of much of Southeast Asia during the Vietnam War."
But these regulations have all included important exceptions that excuse the killing of civilians and destruction of property if such actions are justifiable by "military necessity" - a loophole literally big enough to fly a long-range bomber through, as evidenced by such mass atrocities as the Allied and Axis "strategic bombing" campaigns during World War II, including the Atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and the carpet bombing of much of Southeast Asia during the Vietnam War."
Professor LeVine needs to calm down. Trump has done none of these things. What he authorized was the targeted taking out of a terror mastermind-just as President Obama authorized the killing of Usama bin Laden when he was located by American intelligence in Pakistan.
Meanwhile, back at the Aswan High Dam....
"But if we return to the event that led to the creation of the World Heritage list - the building of the Aswan High Dam - the darker side of this emphasis on protecting material, built and artistic culture and heritage becomes apparent. While the world came together to spend huge sums to disassemble, move and reconstruct Abu Simbel and Philae and created the political and financial infrastructure to protect other sites around the world, the tens of thousands of poor and marginalised Nubian Egyptians who lived for millennia in the area of the Nile flooded by the dam were unceremoniously driven from their homeland and are still suffering from the scars of their displacement and battling with the government to return."
But what does all this have to do with President Trump and his comment about Iran? What's next-five closing paragraphs describing the meaning of culture?
Oh wait! What's this?
"As the great critic and novelist Raymond Williams explained in his seminal philosophical dictionary, Keywords, the root of "culture" lies in the Latin words cultura and colere, whose primary meanings were to "inhabit, cultivate, protect, honour with worship". We see this original connotation in contemporary words like "cultivate" and "colony", which are directly related to the English and French term "culture" that emerged in the 15th century.
But what does all this have to do with President Trump and his comment about Iran? What's next-five closing paragraphs describing the meaning of culture?
Oh wait! What's this?
"As the great critic and novelist Raymond Williams explained in his seminal philosophical dictionary, Keywords, the root of "culture" lies in the Latin words cultura and colere, whose primary meanings were to "inhabit, cultivate, protect, honour with worship". We see this original connotation in contemporary words like "cultivate" and "colony", which are directly related to the English and French term "culture" that emerged in the 15th century.
That is, from the start "culture" was "a noun of process: the tending of something". Not long after the connotation of cultivation expanded to include the process of human development and education. It was only in the later 18th and then 19th centuries that culture became more of an abstract noun, a product of human activity rather than the activity itself.
During this time, culture became associated (and confused) with "civilisation", a far larger, more static and essentialised entity, as in the "clash of civilisations" thesis popularised by neocons like Bernard Lewis and Samuel Huntington and all the damage associated with it."
In the interest of brevity, I will spare the reader that last two paragraphs. Suffice to say that this is all because of those three little words Trump uttered:
"....the Iranian culture..."
Even many of Trump's supporters wish he would tone down the rhetoric, get off Twitter, and act and speak in a more presidential manner. But we have learned that is what he is. The important thing is that he allowed the Iran-Soleimani crisis to de-escalate without war, and that is to his credit. Thus far, Trump has not bombed the world, let alone Iran.
LeVine, like so many of Trump's enemies, jumps on every loose comment he makes and goes right down the rabbit hole- or, in LeVine's case, a long-winded article on Qatar's Al Jazeera, no less. Qatar, it should be noted, is no model of human rights and has been linked to several terror organizations in the Middle East including Hamas. Which leads me to wonder if LeVine, who is not timid about criticizing certain Middle Eastern countries, will be writing any articles critical of Qatar on Al Jazeera.
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