Unanimous Consent Request--S. Con. Res. 32
Floor Speech
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Mr. MARKEY. Madam President, Members of the Senate, I rise first to express my grave concern over President Trump's recent actions and words that have brought us to the brink of an unauthorized war with Iran.
Today I am introducing a resolution with Senator Warren and Senators Leahy and Reed and Booker and Wyden because, on Saturday, President Trump tweeted that his administration is targeting 52 sites, some of which are cultural sites treasured by the Iranian people.
My resolution is very simple. It says that attacks on cultural sites in Iran are war crimes. It is as straightforward as that.
The President would compound the mistake he has made and turn it into something that could be catastrophic for that region, for our country, for the world.
President Trump's repeated threats to add Iranian cultural sites to his military target list is a betrayal of American values. It is wrong. It is a needless escalation which ignores international law and the Defense Department's own policies. Attacking cultural sites is a violation of international law.
Article 53 of protocol 1 to the Geneva Conventions prohibits any act of hostility against cultural objects, including making cultural sites the target of reprisals.
The 1954 Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict, which has been ratified by this body, also prohibits the attack or destruction of cultural sites.
Attacking cultural sites would also violate the Defense Department's own policies. The Department of Defense Law of War Manual states that cultural property, the areas immediately surrounding it, and appliances in use for its protection should be safeguarded and respected.
The fact that President Trump's threatened attacks of cultural sites in Iran violate international law and Department of Defense policies may be why, yesterday, Defense Secretary Mark Esper appeared forced to contradict the President.
When asked if cultural sites would be targeted as the President had suggested over the weekend, Secretary Esper stated that the United States ``follow[s] the laws of armed conflict.''
Well, the U.S. Senate then should speak clearly with one voice to tell President Trump it does not condone attacks on cultural sites in Iran. Given Secretary Esper's comments yesterday, I cannot see why my friends on the other side of the aisle would not support this resolution to make that statement very clear and to make it now before Iran potentially retaliates against us, and the President begins to select the targets inside of Iran.
Attacking cultural sites is what ISIS does. It is what al-Qaida does. It is what the world's most heinous terrorists do. There is no excuse for the President to threaten war crimes by intentionally targeting the cultural sites of another country. This is not who we are. We are the United States of America. We are better than this. We actually fight against this. We condemn ISIS. We condemn others who destroy the culturally sacred objects in other countries.
Just a few years ago, in 2017, the Trump administration itself opposed and condemned the unlawful destruction of cultural heritage at the hands of ISIS. As a top U.S. official to the United Nations, U.S. Deputy Permanent Representative to the U.N. Michele Sison said on the President's behalf:
The unlawful destruction or trafficking of cultural heritage is deplorable. We unequivocally oppose it and we will take all feasible steps to halt, limit, and to discourage it.
Now the President himself is threatening to engage in exactly these sorts of illegal and reprehensible attacks on Iran.
The United States had a choice to make during World War II because our military kept putting Japan's ancient capital Kyoto back on the target list for the atomic bomb. Kyoto is home to more than 2,000 Buddhist temples, Shinto shrines, including 17 world heritage sites.
It was Secretary of War Henry Stimson who went directly to President Truman to argue that Kyoto should be removed because ``the bitterness which would be caused by such a wanton act might make it impossible during the long post-war period to reconcile the Japanese to us.''
So if we want any ultimate reconciliation with Iran, we cannot allow Donald Trump to order the destruction of the cultural history of Iran so that reconciliation may never be possible. Imagine the outcry the American people would have if our symbols of cultural heritage were destroyed--the Statue of Liberty destroyed; Independence Hall, where the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution were drafted, destroyed; the memorials along the National Mall destroyed. These places house and embody our collective history and the culture of the United States of America.
The assassination of General Soleimani was a massive, deliberate, and dangerous escalation of conflict with Iran. What conditions prompt us to go to war? The U.S. Constitution and the War Powers Act leave little ambiguity. The Congress, not the President, has the power to make or authorize the war. The Congress has the authority to determine when and how we go to war.
We cannot and must not get drawn into a costly war with Iran. We need to deescalate now. But President Trump's threat to illegally attack cultural sites in Iran only aligns us with the world's most sinister and draws us further along the path to war.
Some might say: Well, Secretary of Defense Esper says that President Trump will not do this. Let me read you President Trump's tweet at 5:52 p.m. on Saturday evening. Here is what he said: ``targeted 52 Iranian sites . . . some at a very high level & important to Iran & the Iranian culture, and those targets, and Iran itself, WILL BE HIT VERY FAST AND VERY HARD.''
That was by the President of the United States just Saturday night at 5:52 p.m., and we are supposed to be assured by Secretary of Defense Esper that we don't have to worry?
Well, here is what we have learned in just the last couple of days. The generals were stunned. The generals were shocked that President Trump ordered the assassination of Soleimani. So we can't depend upon the representations of Secretary Esper.
We have to make a statement ourselves because no one in his administration controls Donald Trump. If he says that he is going to target the most valuable cultural sites inside Iran, we should believe him. He does what he says he is going to do. He wanted to kill Soleimani. Even if the generals were shocked, he did it.
He doesn't understand the long-term consequences. From his perspective, just get over it. Well, if we sow the wind, we are going to reap the whirlwind in Iran.
If the President decides to take the next step after Iran retaliates--and they say that they are--and these sacred cultural sites are on the list, then taking Secretary Stimson's advice from World War II, our ability to ever reconcile may be impossible.
This is the moment that we have to speak as a Senate because we do not know how much time will elapse before Iran strikes back at us, as they have promised. We should make our statement right now to Donald Trump in the Oval Office that we do not want him under any circumstances to order the destruction of the most sacred cultural sites inside Iran. It would be a war crime. It would be a violation of the Geneva Convention. It would be a violation of the Hague Convention. It would have catastrophic consequences for our country and for the Middle East for a generation. So this is the time for us to speak-- before it happens, before the President fulfills his promise to destroy those sites.
He is the Commander in Chief. He said that he wants to do this. He just killed--assassinated--the top military official, the second most powerful person in Iran, to the shock of his own generals. So do not think for a second he will not do this.
This is a potential tragedy for our country. This is a potential source of eternal friction between our two countries. Reconciliation with Iran would become nearly impossible. So let's make this statement as the U.S. Senate. Let's follow up on what Secretary of Defense Esper represents as the position of President Trump and of the administration--that they don't want to destroy it. But let's make the statement because we know that the Defense Secretary just may not speak for Donald Trump. No one speaks for Donald Trump. Only his tweets speak for Donald Trump, and we know what his tweet said: ``at a very high level & important to Iran & the Iranian culture, and those targets, and Iran itself, WILL BE HIT VERY FAST AND VERY HARD.''
We have a chance here to make a statement before this happens. Forewarned is forearmed. We have been forewarned, and our ability to act is with a unanimous resolution here from the floor of the U.S. Senate, saying to the President as Secretary Stimson said to President Truman in 1945: Do not do this, Mr. President. It will be a mistake of historic proportions and a war crime. Do not order a war crime to be conducted in the name of the American people.
So the resolution that I bring to the floor is intended to have this body vote and vote unanimously for him not to take that action. This is our moment to speak before he compounds his original mistake--the assassination of General Soleimani--and turns it into a tragedy, which we will have to live with for a generation.
Con. Res. 32 submitted earlier today. I further ask that the concurrent resolution be agreed to, the preamble be agreed to, and the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table with no intervening action or debate.
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Mr. MARKEY. Madam President, just in response to the Senator from Oklahoma, it is deeply disheartening when, on the floor of the U.S. Senate, we cannot agree to a simple commitment that the United States of America should never engage in military actions that are war crimes by attacking cultural sites in Iran.
When ISIS attacks cultural sites in the Middle East, we condemn that because we know what the impact on the cultures of those countries will be. When al-Qaida attacked us on September 11, 2001, which targets did they select? They selected the World Trade Center, the symbol of capitalism in the United States. They selected the Pentagon, the symbol of our defense. And but for those brave passengers on that plane in Pennsylvania, when they said ``Let's roll,'' that target could have been the Capitol Building of the United States of America where we are standing right now, the symbol of Democracy. They knew what they were doing--they were striking at capitalism, at our Defense Department, and at our democracy--and they knew what the impact would have been on our country.
So we have a choice to make right now out here on the floor of the Senate, and that is to make a statement before we do that to the Iranians because we ourselves experienced it, and we know what our reaction was. They will rise up in a way that will make it impossible to reconcile. We will be in eternal war in the Middle East.
My request to the Members is to have this resolution come back out here on the floor. I understand the gentleman's objection, but the President could be ordering additional retaliatory strikes against the Iranians within a week if the Iranians are good for their word that they are going to hit us. We have to be sure that if the President does that, he does so in a way that does not commit a war crime and that does not destroy these culturally significant parts of the Iranian culture that go back thousands of years. It would be something that ultimately would be catastrophic.
We are better than this. We are the United States of America. President Trump has already made one mistake in assassinating General Soleimani. We should not allow him to compound that mistake.
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Mr. MARKEY. I yield to Senator Inhofe.
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Mr. MARKEY. Madam President.
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Mr. MARKEY. I yield back.
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Source