'If You Can Keep It': The US, Iran, And War Crimes

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🗓️ 6 April 2026

⏱️ 43 minutes

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Summary

Both Iran and the U.S. have been accused of committing or planning war crimes since “Operation Epic Fury” began in late February.

Targeting electricity-generating stations, schools, and water-purifying plants is illegal under international law. Pretty much any civilian infrastructure is supposed to be off limits.

But what does it actually mean to label military action a war crime in today’s conflicts? We sit down with a panel of experts to talk about it.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	If you can keep it, our weekly series on the state of our democracy,
0:11.2	continues today with questions about the Trump administration's airstrikes in Iran.
0:15.7	Specifically, whether the U.S. could be breaking international humanitarian law,
0:19.9	the rules that govern how wars are fought.
0:22.0	Those laws of war exist to protect civilians and civilian infrastructure, but they only work
0:27.9	if someone enforces them. Yet, Iranian state media says 32 medical and health care centers
0:34.0	and 763 schools have been destroyed by American and Israeli attacks,
0:39.5	though those numbers haven't been independently verified, we want to stress. We do know that the
0:45.5	United States blew up Iran's largest bridge. That was on Thursday, a day after the president
0:51.3	threatened to bomb the country, quote, back to the Stone Ages, if it
0:55.4	deal to end the war wasn't reached. And on Sunday, the president posted on Truth Social, quote,
1:01.0	Tuesday will be power plant day and bridge day all wrapped up in one in Iran. There will be nothing like it.
1:07.8	Open the F word straight, you crazy bastards, or you'll be living in hell. Just
1:11.8	watch. If the president follows through and orders these kinds of attacks, he says, starting
1:16.9	Tuesday, would they constitute war crimes? And if they did, what would accountability look like?
1:23.2	I'm Jen White. And I'm Todd's Willick. You're listening to the 1A podcast. We'll get to these
1:27.2	questions and more after a quick break. Stay with us.
1:34.9	Welcome back to the 1A podcast. We're talking about war crimes and whether the U.S. could be breaking international humanitarian law. Let's get into the discussion and meet our panel.
1:46.6	Joining us from New Haven is Ona Hathaway.
1:49.7	She's a professor of international law at Yale Law School.
1:53.8	She's also the president-elect of the American Society of International Law.
1:55.0	Ona, welcome to the program.
	...

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