Lang Warns, U.S. Designating Iran’s IRGC as a Terrorist Organization Is a Declaration of War

April 9, 2019(EIRNS)—On April 7, the day before the Trump Administration announced that it would be designating Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a terrorist organization, but as the press leaks on it were reaching a crescendo, retired Col. Patrick Lang put it in the context of the 2001 Authorization for the Use of Military Force (AUMF), which makes it legal for the U.S. military to attack any armed group deemed to be a terrorist threat.

“The official designation as ‘terrorist’ of the IRGC which is a 125,000 man army with its own navy and air force makes it legal for the U.S. Armed Forces to attack the IRGC and its people wherever they are found and under any circumstances that may occur,” he wrote on his blog, “Sic Semper Tyrannis.” “It is a declaration of war.”

“The neocon nitwits (Pompeo, Bolton, Hannah, etc.) may think that Iran’s reaction to this declaration of war will be submission to their will but IMO (in my opinion) that is very unlikely,” he concluded. “IMO it is more likely that the IRGC will absorb the new reality and will prepare for war with the U.S.”

Lang’s warning that the designation is a declaration of war was echoed by a number of other observers, among them Mintpress journalist Whitney Webb, who quoted Lang to that effect, as well as some other experts. Trita Parsi, founder of the National Iranian American Council, told the Financial Times that the designation “closes yet another potential door for peacefully resolving tensions with Iran. Once all doors are closed, and diplomacy is rendered impossible, war will essentially become inevitable.”