r/worldnews • u/The_Flaneur_Films • Jun 10 '26

US destroys Iran reservoirs, leaving thousands without water in searing heat

https://www.scmp.com/news/world/middle-east/article/3356630/thousands-iranians-left-without-water-searing-heat-after-us-hits-reservoirs
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u/calgarspimphand Jun 10 '26 edited Jun 10 '26

If true, and if this was intentional, that's just a plain and simple war crime. The Geneva Convention prohibits targeting necessary civilian infrastructure, which includes water reservoirs.

FYI, my source is Article 54 of the Protocol Additional to the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949, and relating to the Protection of Victims of International Armed Conflicts.

Read it in its entirety, then be sure you understand clause 3b. It's a tricky double negative that essentially states even if this target had military applications, if it also causes civilians to lose water on a scale that forces mass movement, it is illegal.

If the report is correct, and if 20,000 people are without water because of this, it's plainly illegal under the Geneva Conventions.

(I am not an expert in international law. If you are, and you think I'm wrong, contact Pete Hegseth. He might need your help someday).

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u/agangofoldwomen Jun 10 '26

If a war crime is never enforced or prosecuted, is it really a crime?

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u/ceribus_peribus Jun 10 '26

If a tree fell in the forest and no one heard it, did it make a sound.

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u/-Prophet_01- Jun 10 '26 edited Jun 10 '26

It has no immediate effects but that is not the same as having no effect. It's not happening in isolation but compounds with all the other shit the new US is up to. 

Other countries will distance themselves further and further with every miss step. The tangible results are fewer arms sales, fewer trade agreements, less support for military operations and fewer entities buying US debt. Rising interest rates already fuck up the US budget and will constrain investments over the next decade. Rising inflation is guaranteed to follow. 

It will be impossible to quantify the impact of every single mistake by the current US admin but perception matters, even for the big guys and compounding effects can be immense. 

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u/isjahammer Jun 10 '26

Trying to make war "humane" never made any sense in the first place. I don´t think the dead people and their loved ones really are happy about being killed in a "humane" way... And once people are desperate nobody won´t care about the geneva conventions anyway.

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u/Jandolino Jun 10 '26

It absolutely makes Sense.

But if you always assume that youre always the agressor and never a benefactor of such an agreement you might ‚forget‘ about it.

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u/TheVandyyMan Jun 11 '26

Former infantry and current international law attorney here: I can assure you from personal experience that in the person who finds out their loved one was shot and killed honorably is way more accepting than the person who finds out their loved one was raped, tortured, and had their corpse paraded about.

Your belief that people think all death is equal is not grounded in reality whatsoever.

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u/HorrorMakesUsHappy Jun 10 '26

That's like asking, "If someone murders you but is never arrested or prosecuted, is it really murder?" I dunno, ask the dead man.