Summary: Joint Statement against the Military Targeting of Cultural Sites
January 2020
This is a summary of a statement drafted by the American Anthropological Association and endorsed by twenty-three other organizations, including the MLA Executive Council.
- Our scholarly and professional societies call upon Americans and the world to remind the president of the United States that targeting cultural sites for military activity is a war crime and cannot be justified under any circumstances.
- The president has threatened on Twitter to target fifty-two sites in Iran, including cultural sites, if Iran retaliates for the assassination of Iranian general Qasem Soleimani.
- The administration must be dissuaded from continuing to threaten cultural sites and civilians.
- Cultural sites at risk of damage or destruction by military activity result in an irreplaceable loss to civilization, history, and human understanding.
- The United States Department of Defense has coordinated with knowledgeable experts over the past two decades to protect cultural sites in the region. President Trump’s apparent reversal of strategy is misguided, short-sighted, and dangerous.
- Destruction of cultural sites, like the targeting of civilians and noncombatants, must never be considered as a military objective.