Since President Donald Trump first directed the outrage of his supporters at a Central American migrant caravan making its way towards the United States a little over a week ago, his plan to deploy between 5,200 and 15,000 active-duty U.S. soldiers to the border has provoked mixed reactions within the United States. However, Trump's more recent announcement that armed U.S. soldiers have been instructed to target any migrants who resort to throwing stones as though they were firing rifles has evoked an even wider range of reactions.
On Thursday afternoon, Trump detailed in a speech that
"Anybody [in the caravan] throwing stones, rocks, like they did to Mexico and the Mexican military, Mexican police, where they badly hurt police and soldiers of Mexico, we will consider that a firearm." He then elaborated that "we will consider it [stone throwing], the maximum that we can consider that...We're not going to put up with that. They want to throw rocks at our military, our military fights back....I told them to consider it a rifle."Though some Mexican law enforcement officers were injured by stone throwers during their efforts to use a show of military and police force to pressure the caravan from advancing, there were no fatalities or severe injuries incurred by the Mexican authorities.
Trump's announcement caused considerable outrage within the U.S. media and among some U.S. veterans, with some calling these new rules of engagement a war crime in the making. However, it has long been the standard in countries like Israel, where the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have used stone throwing as the pretext to disperse "riots" as well as peaceful protests with live ammunition.
Comment: Imitating Israel in theory and actions will rain down condemnation at home and abroad. Once implemented with consequences, it can't be walked back.
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