{"id":47135,"date":"2026-03-11T12:39:03","date_gmt":"2026-03-11T19:39:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=47135"},"modified":"2026-03-11T12:39:24","modified_gmt":"2026-03-11T19:39:24","slug":"trump-makes-most-blase-admission-of-a-war-crime-by-a-us-president-in-history","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2026\/03\/11\/trump-makes-most-blase-admission-of-a-war-crime-by-a-us-president-in-history\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump Makes \u2018Most Blas\u00e9 Admission of a War Crime by a US President in History\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/media-library\/sri-lankan-navy-personnel-evacuate-rescued-iranian-sailors-after-the-iris-dena-was-sunk-by-the-united-states-on-march-4-2026-o.jpg?id=65189230&amp;width=1200&amp;height=400&amp;quality=70&amp;coordinates=0%2C158%2C0%2C98\" alt=\"Trump Makes 'Most Blas\u00e9 Admission of a War Crime by a US President in History'\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Sri Lankan navy personnel evacuate rescued Iranian sailors after the IRIS Dena was sunk by the United States on March 4, 2026, off the coast of Galle, Sri Lanka.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u00a0(Photo from the Sri Lankan president\u2019s office)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Critics blasted Trump as \u201csadistic\u201d for justifying attack on unarmed Iranian ship, which killed over 100 sailors, because it was \u201cmore fun\u201d for US forces than capturing it.<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/author\/stephen-prager\">Stephen Prager<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Mar 10, 2026 (CommonDreams.org)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>President&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/tag\/donald-trump\">Donald Trump<\/a>&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/atrupar\/status\/2031113238100803993?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E2031113238100803993%7Ctwgr%5Eeb19232eac47f38ab1a43c821ae5dfe2a8efbf77%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&amp;ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.commondreams.org%2Fr%2Fentryeditor%2F2675991450%3Fbtest%3DNews_EE%3A%3Apublish\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">said<\/a>&nbsp;the US Navy chose to sink an Iranian frigate, killing more than 100 sailors last week, because it was \u201cmore fun\u201d than capturing the vessel, even though the ship posed no threat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Though death tolls vary, Iran\u2019s state media organization, the Islamic Republic News Organization,&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.aa.com.tr\/en\/americas\/104-killed-in-us-attack-on-iranian-warship-off-sri-lanka-iran-s-army-says\/3855540\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\">reported<\/a>&nbsp;on Sunday that 104 crew members were killed in the attack and that 32 others were injured when a US submarine torpedoed the Iranian warship&nbsp;<em>IRIS Dena<\/em>&nbsp;in the Indian Ocean on March 4 as it departed from the Milan Peace 2026 naval drills hosted in India.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>RECOMMENDED&#8230;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/news\/impeach-trump-iran-war\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/media-library\/anti-trump-demonstration-in-turkey-after-us-attack-on-iran.jpg?id=65102933&amp;width=1200&amp;height=1200&amp;quality=70&amp;coordinates=333%2C0%2C333%2C0\" alt=\"Anti-Trump demonstration in Turkey after US Attack on Iran\"\/><\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/news\/impeach-trump-iran-war\">Call Grows to Impeach Trump, \u2018The Most Dangerous Man on the Planet\u2019<\/a><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/news\/economy-under-trump\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/media-library\/us-iran-israel-war-demonstration.jpg?id=65163466&amp;width=1200&amp;height=1200&amp;quality=70&amp;coordinates=837%2C0%2C837%2C0\" alt=\"US-IRAN-ISRAEL-WAR-DEMONSTRATION\"\/><\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/news\/economy-under-trump\">\u2018People Are Loving What\u2019s Happening,\u2019 Trump Claims While Massacring Iranian Children as US Oil Prices and Unemployment Spike<\/a><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>The&nbsp;<em>Dena&nbsp;<\/em>was more than 2,000 miles away from the Persian Gulf when it was attacked, far from the hostilities unleashed last weekend when the US and Israel launched a war against Iran. Contradicting US claims, Iranian and Indian officials have said it was not armed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In what political commentator Adam Schwarz\u00a0<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/bsky.app\/profile\/adamjschwarz.bsky.social\/post\/3mgnqzsvmmc22\" target=\"_blank\">described<\/a>\u00a0as \u201cthe most blas\u00e9 admission of a war crime by a US president in history,\u201d Trump on Monday casually recounted the US Navy\u2019s decision to attack the ship before a gathering of\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/tag\/republicans\">Republicans<\/a>\u00a0at a Congressional Institute event, a GOP-aligned nonprofit retreat organizer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Trump: &quot;I said, &#39;Why don&#39;t we just capture the ship? We could use it. Why did we sink them?&#39; He said, &#39;It&#39;s more fun to sink them.&#39; They like sinking them better.&quot; <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/nR6KOxFCTY\">pic.twitter.com\/nR6KOxFCTY<\/a><\/p>&mdash; Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/atrupar\/status\/2031113238100803993?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">March 9, 2026<\/a><\/blockquote><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>He suggested that the Navy blew the boat up not to neutralize a threat, but purely for its own sake.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>After making the&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2026\/03\/10\/politics\/fact-check-trump-iran-war-tomahawks\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">exaggerated<\/a>&nbsp;boast that Iran\u2019s navy is \u201cgone\u201d following aggressive US bombing, Trump said at first he \u201cgot a little upset\u201d with the military brass who ordered the sinking of the&nbsp;<em>Dena,&nbsp;<\/em>which he said they described as a \u201ctop-of-the-line\u201d vessel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Trump said he asked: \u201cWhy don\u2019t we just capture the ship? We could have used it. Why did we sink them?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He said that an unspecified official told him, \u201cIt\u2019s more fun to sink them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As the crowd laughed, Trump went on, chuckling himself: \u201cThey like sinking them better. They say it\u2019s safer to sink them. I guess it\u2019s probably true.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Iran\u2019s deputy foreign minister, Saeed Khatibzadeh,&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/abcnews.com\/International\/wireStory\/armed-unarmed-us-iran-spar-status-iranian-warship-130892544#:~:text=It%20was%20ceremonial\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">described<\/a>&nbsp;the ship as operating in a purely \u201cceremonial\u201d role and said it was \u201cunloaded\u201d and \u201cunarmed\u201d at the time of the attack last week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Rahul Bedi, an independent defense analyst in India,&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/iran-israel-us-iris-dena-warship-submarine-8789cf718b1ebf8b571cb8ef5d785150\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">told<\/a>&nbsp;the&nbsp;<em>Associated Press&nbsp;<\/em>that while the ship may have used some limited non-offensive ammunition during naval exercises, drill protocol requires \u201cthe participating platforms to be unarmed.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/abcnews.com\/International\/wireStory\/armed-unarmed-us-iran-spar-status-iranian-warship-130892544\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">claimed<\/a>&nbsp;the vessel was a \u201cpredator ship,\u201d while the US Indo-Pacific Command has said claims that the ship was unarmed are \u201cfalse.\u201d However, it has provided no evidence that it posed a threat at the time of the attack.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The attack itself was&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/theconversation.com\/the-us-sank-an-iranian-warship-and-didnt-rescue-the-survivors-is-this-legal-in-war-277606\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">likely legal<\/a>&nbsp;under the rules of naval warfare, even if the ship was unarmed, though its ethical and tactical justification has been&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/news\/hegseth-iran-war-crimes?share_id=9223203&amp;utm_campaign=RebelMouse&amp;utm_content=Common+Dreams&amp;utm_medium=social&amp;utm_source=twitter\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">called into question<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cA military ship might be a lawful target,\u201d&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/tag\/phyllis-bennis\">Phyllis Bennis<\/a>, the co-director of the Institute for Policy Studies\u2019 New Internationalism Project told&nbsp;<em>Common Dreams<\/em>. \u201cBut firing on any ship\u2014any people, anywhere\u2014for \u2018fun\u2019 represents the kind of immoral depravity that this&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/tag\/white-house\">White House<\/a>&nbsp;is infamous for.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Bennis added that \u201cfailing to do everything possible to rescue those aboard is certainly a war crime,\u201d as the Second Geneva Convention&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/ihl-databases.icrc.org\/en\/ihl-treaties\/gcii-1949\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">requires<\/a>&nbsp;militaries to take all possible measures to search for and collect the shipwrecked, wounded, and sick.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The\u00a0<em>Dena\u2019s<\/em>\u00a032 survivors, as well as dozens of dead bodies,\u00a0<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.aa.com.tr\/en\/americas\/104-killed-in-us-attack-on-iranian-warship-off-sri-lanka-iran-s-army-says\/3855540\" target=\"_blank\">had to be pulled<\/a>\u00a0from the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/tag\/water\">water<\/a>\u00a0by a Sri Lankan joint rescue operation following a distress call. The survivors were quickly rushed to a local hospital in Galle City.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>X post:  <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/24_70xu\/status\/2029842261513806335?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E2029842261513806335%7Ctwgr%5E0a36db077c40b7d7abc68fe6f310c18226a07861%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&amp;ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.commondreams.org%2Fnews%2Ftrump-iran-ship-sunk-for-fun\">https:\/\/x.com\/24_70xu\/status\/2029842261513806335?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E2029842261513806335%7Ctwgr%5E0a36db077c40b7d7abc68fe6f310c18226a07861%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&amp;ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.commondreams.org%2Fnews%2Ftrump-iran-ship-sunk-for-fun<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Hegseth has previously come under fire for reportedly&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/news\/pete-hegseth-boat\">ordering<\/a>&nbsp;a second strike on shipwrecked sailors who survived the bombing of an alleged drug trafficking boat in the Caribbean.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Many have&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/news\/trump-drug-boat\">described<\/a>&nbsp;that attack on September 2 as an exceptionally blatant war crime in a broadly illegal campaign that has extrajudicially killed at least 156 people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In carrying out its war against Iran, Hegseth has&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/news\/hegseth-rules-of-engagement\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">emphasized<\/a>&nbsp;that the US would not abide by what he called \u201cstupid rules of engagement.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Thousands of civilian targets, including schools, hospitals, and residential areas, have reportedly been&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/news\/fourth-iran-school-bombed\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">attacked<\/a>&nbsp;by US and Israeli strikes, according to the Iranian Red Crescent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As of Monday, Iranian Deputy Health Minister Ali Jafarian&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2026\/3\/9\/iran-says-1255-killed-in-us-israeli-attacks-mostly-civilians\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">said<\/a>&nbsp;at least 1,255 people have been killed, including 200&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/tag\/children\">children<\/a>&nbsp;and 11&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/tag\/healthcare\">healthcare<\/a>&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/tag\/workers\">workers<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Though it may have still technically been legal, journalist Mark Ames, the co-host of the geopolitics podcast&nbsp;<em>Radio War Nerd<\/em>,&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/MarkAmesExiled\/status\/2031195785639903549\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">argued<\/a>&nbsp;that attacking a ship that posed no threat shows that Trump is \u201ccowardly scum\u201d who \u201cgets his kicks killing those who can\u2019t fight back.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThe ship was unarmed. That\u2019s why Trump and Hegseth chose to murder them,\u201d Ames wrote on&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/tag\/social-media\">social media<\/a>. \u201cTormenting those who can\u2019t fight back is its own sadistic pleasure.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Bennis added that even if attacking the ship itself was lawful in a vacuum, it took place before a backdrop of brazen \u201cillegality.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThis entire shocking episode represents a clear US violation of what the Nuremberg trials identified as the \u2018supreme international crime\u2019: the crime of aggression,\u201d she said. \u201cThe US had no legal right to go to war against Iran. The [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/tag\/united-nations\">United Nations<\/a>] Security Council had not authorized the use of force, and there was no \u2018armed attack\u2019 from Iran against the US that required immediate self-defense.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWithout either of those, the UN Charter is very clear that no country may attack another country,\u201d she continued. \u201cTo do so, as the Nuremberg judges found, constitutes the crime of aggression\u2014the ultimate crime.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em><strong>NOTE: This piece has been updated following publication to include additional comments.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/author\/stephen-prager\">Stephen Prager<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Stephen Prager is a staff writer for Common Dreams.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/author\/stephen-prager\">Full Bio &gt;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Sri Lankan navy personnel evacuate rescued Iranian sailors after the IRIS Dena was sunk by the United States on March 4, 2026, off the coast of Galle, Sri Lanka. \u00a0(Photo from the Sri Lankan president\u2019s office) Critics blasted Trump as \u201csadistic\u201d for justifying attack on unarmed Iranian ship, which killed&#8230; <a class=\"continue-reading-link\" href=\"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2026\/03\/11\/trump-makes-most-blase-admission-of-a-war-crime-by-a-us-president-in-history\/\"> Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr; <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47135"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47135"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47135\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":47136,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47135\/revisions\/47136"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47135"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47135"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47135"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}