[emmab]

> The US continues, today, to be the only first-strike nuclear nation threatening to (as an explicit policy) destroy civilian population centers in a host of competitor countries as a coercive tactic and if and when it serves US national interest.

Doesn't the Geneva convention disallow terrorism? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fourth_Geneva_Convention#Colle...

Does this mean that if anyone actually carried out an order like this they could be prosecuted for war crimes?

Is it illegal to make or disseminate plans for war crimes if one hasn't carried them out yet?

[user982]

International law does not apply to the US. When the Hague found the United States guilty of attacking and violating Nicaragua's sovereignty, the US simply refused to comply with the ruling and the issue was subsequently dropped.[1]

> Is it illegal to make or disseminate plans for war crimes if one hasn't carried them out yet?

Apparently not.[2]

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicaragua_v._United_States

[2]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychological_Operations_in_Gu...

[douche]

The Geneva Convention is only useful so long as the people with the big guns choose to uphold it. In many respects, it is a relic of early-modern limited war doctrines and archaic aristocratic sensibilities.