President Donald Trump has repeatedly warned Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz but delivered his most staggering threat on Tuesday morning.
Retired U.S. Army Brigadier General Steve Anderson on Tuesday slammed President Donald Trump as "an absolutely terrible commander in chief" and predicted Nuremberg-style trials if he follows through with his staggering threat against Iranian civilians amid his ongoing war.
Trump threatened on Easter Sunday to bomb Iranian bridges and power plants if the nation doesn't reopen the Strait of Hormuz, through which a fifth of the world's oil passes. He vowed Tuesday morning that if this doesn't happen by 8 p.m. ET, "A whole civilization will die tonight."
Anderson was asked on CNN for his reaction during an appearance on "News Central."
"Well, we already knew that Donald Trump was a pretty bad president, but now we know that he's an absolutely terrible commander in chief, as well," he told host Kate Bolduan. "I mean, he continues to vacillate. He offers contradictory messaging about what's going on."
Anderson continued, "Does he support the Iranian people? Does he not? Does he want regime change? Does he not? Do the allies [stick] with us? Does he need them? I mean, it goes on and on ... I mean, again, this guy is just not competent in terms of leading this force."
"I think that at 8 p.m. tonight, I believe that he'll figure out a way to either extend the deadline, because there's no way that he can do what he says he's going to do -- which is to bomb every single civilian target in the theater in Iran," the retired veteran told Bolduan.
Anderson continued, "And if he were to do that, it would be ... the commitment of a great war crime. And I mean, I'm old enough to remember the Nuremberg trials and how we've held the Germans accountable after the atrocities they committed during World War II." Twelve high-ranking Nazi officials were sentenced to death in 1946 for their role in said atrocities.
While the destruction of civilian infrastructure would amount to war crimes under international law, Trump on Monday defended his threat, telling a reporter, "They're animals."
Anderson told Bolduan, "I'd hate to think, you know, five, 10 years from now, we'd be doing the same kind of thing with American soldiers and leaders that made decisions that were being directed by the president of the United States that are illegal."
Anderson said earlier in the show that Trump hasn't given U.S. soldiers "clear objectives" to execute, and noted that Iran has only increased its oil exports since the war began, calling it "the greatest geopolitical blunder that the United States has ever committed in its history."