The Iranian Humiliation Trump Is Trying to Avenge

President Donald Trump’s threat over the weekend to strike Iranian cultural sites was just another entry in the “shocking, not surprising” list: It’s hardly the first time the president has called for the U.S. to commit war crimes. But the specificity of the threat was peculiar:

Let this serve as a WARNING that if Iran strikes any Americans, or American assets, we have targeted 52 Iranian sites (representing the 52 American hostages taken by Iran many years ago), some at a very high level & important to Iran & the Iranian culture, and those targets, and Iran itself, WILL BE HIT VERY FAST AND VERY HARD.

It’s no calumny to say that Trump isn’t much for details or history; he and his allies will usually admit the same. Yet here