by Jacob G. Hornberger

April 3, 2026

In his televised address about his war on Iran this week, President Trump stated that he would use the next two or three weeks to bomb Iran “back to the stone ages.” In what appears to be part of that plan, U.S. forces have just bombed the largest bridge in Tehran, which was newly built and connected Tehran and the city of Karaj. The U.S. bombing of the bridge reportedly killed eight people and injured 95 others. According to an article in the Guardian, Trump announced on his Truth Media website that there would be “much more to follow” if Iranian leaders failed to enter into a settlement of the war, including, of course, a reopening of the Strait of Hormuz.

Trump’s vow to bomb Iran “back to the stone ages” brings to mind the infamous Morgenthau Plan for Germany after World War II. The plan, which was proposed by U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Henry Morgenthau, called for the removal or destruction of all industrial plants and equipment in the Ruhr part of Germany.

Morgenthau proposed his plan in 1944, in anticipation of Nazi Germany’s surrender. The plan was detailed in a written memorandum entitled “Suggested Post-Surrender Program for Germany.” If it had been adopted, it would have converted Germany into a pastoral country — that is, one that would have been entirely based on farming and ranching and forcibly devoid of any industry or manufacturing.

But the Morgenthau Plan wasn’t adopted. That’s because opponents of the plan pointed out that it would result in the deaths of million of German citizens, primarily from starvation and also from illness. They pointed out that if Germany was forcibly converted to a pastoral country, it would lack the economic base to support the entire German populace.

In other words, the Morgenthau Plan would have essentially constituted a form of legalized murder, which is what caused many Americans, including some U.S. officials, to oppose it. Opponents argued that targeting the German populace with death and suffering, especially out of sense of vengeance for what their government had done, would be the epitome of evil and immorality. They said that that was not what America was all about.

Opponents of the Morgenthau Plan also reminded people of what had happened after U.S. interventionism in World War I had produced victory over Germany, which was followed by the extremely harsh terms imposed on Germany by the Treaty of Versailles. Nazi leader Adolf Hitler later used those harsh terms in his rise to power, which then led to World War II and the Holocaust.

Thus, opponents argued that doing the same thing to the German people after World War II would only instill another deep sense of rage and anger that would inevitably lead to another world war down the road. Instead, they argued, after Germany’s surrender, the United States and the Allied Powers should do their best to put the war behind them and help restore, not destroy, Germany.

And that’s what happened. The U.S. Marshall Plan offered U.S. governmental aid to West Germany. Moreover, West Germany was free to begin rebuilding almost immediately under free-market principles. Of course, since the U.S. government had agreed to let the Soviet communists take control over East Germany, the same economic prosperity was denied to that half of Germany.

If Trump fulfills his vow to bomb Iran “back to the stone ages,” he will, needless to say, be punishing the civilian population of Iran for living in a country that has a tyrannical regime — one that refuses to kowtow to the overwhelming military might of U.S. Empire. Of course, that won’t bother U.S. officials, given that they have long targeted the Iranian people with death by starvation and illness through decades of brutal and ruthless economic sanctions imposed on the Iranian populace. After all, at the risk of belaboring the obvious, what difference does it make if someone dies from starvation or illness as a result of sanctions or as a result of having his country bombed “back to the stone ages”? In either case, the victims are still dead.

But perhaps — just perhaps — Trump’s vow to bomb Iran “back to the stone ages” will bring about a crisis of conscience for a large number of Americans, especially those who will be going to church on Easter Sunday. For decades, the vast majority of Americans have come to view the U.S. policy of economic sanctions as simply a normal part of the foreign-policy repertoire of their government. Thus, when U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Madeleine Albright, for example, declared that the deaths of half-a-million Iraqi children from the sanctions enforced against Iraq were worth regime change, hardly any Americans batted an eyelash. Killing children for the sake of trying to achieve regime change in Iraq was considered perfectly normal.

But it wasn’t normal. It was abnormal and aberrant. It was also evil and immoral. Killing innocent people, including children, for the sake of a political goal can never be justified. That’s why three high UN officials resigned their posts in protest to what they considered genocide of the Iraqi people resulting from the UN and U.S. sanctions imposed on Iraq. Stricken by a crisis of conscience, those three officials — Denis Halliday, Hans von Sponek, and Jutta Burghardt — simply could not participate in the foreign-policy scheme that was killing children.

That’s what we need here in the United States — a crisis of conscience, especially among people who will be going to church on Easter Sunday. A crisis of conscience, one in which people will not countenance their government bombing any nation “back to the stone ages” or imposing deadly and destructive economic sanctions on people in the hope of achieving a political goal — would help lead America back to its rightful role in the world — one that sets an example for right, just, and moral conduct and that one that leads the world not to death and destruction but instead to liberty, peace, prosperity, and harmony with the people of the world.