Polls were already indicating that the unprovoked attack on Iran launched by the U.S. and Israel is opposed by most U.S. citizens — and to a higher degree than citizens have opposed most U.S.-involved conflicts going back to World War II — and that was before it was reported that preliminary results from an ongoing military investigation have determined that the United States is responsible for a deadly Tomahawk missile strike on an Iranian elementary school that reportedly killed 175 people, most of whom were children.
And while the Trump administration seems to be hiding behind the fact that the investigation is still ongoing, for now, it’s already becoming clear that, ultimately, officials will cling to the narrative that the deadly strike was a simple “mistake.”
The Feb. 28 strike on the Shajarah Tayyebeh elementary school building was the result of a targeting mistake by the U.S. military, which was conducting strikes on an adjacent Iranian base of which the school building was formerly a part, the preliminary investigation found. Officers at U.S. Central Command created the target coordinates for the strike using outdated data provided by the Defense Intelligence Agency, people briefed on the investigation said.
Officials emphasized that the findings are preliminary and that there are important unanswered questions about why the outdated information had not been double checked.
Striking a school full of children is sure to be recorded as one of the most devastating single military errors in recent decades. Iranian officials have said the death toll was at least 175 people, most of them children.
As NBC News reported, images originally published by Iranian state media appear to show missile fragments from a Tomahawk missile purported to be taken at the site of the strike, according to experts who reviewed imagery.
On Tuesday, GOP Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) appeared to acknowledge the likelihood that the U.S. military is responsible for a strike — again, an unprovoked strike — that killed nearly 200 innocent people, joining other officials in describing it as a “mistake.”
“I mean, we’re investigating, but I’m not going to hide behind that,” Kennedy said on “The Arena” with CNN’s Kasie Hunt. “I think that it was a terrible, terrible mistake.”
“The investigation may prove me wrong, I hope so,” he continued. “The kids are still dead. But I think it was a horrible, horrible mistake.”
The Louisiana Republican noted the strike likely “wasn’t intentional,” apologized for it and then called it “the sort of thing Russia does.”
“And when you make a mistake, you ought to admit it,” he added later. “Most people understand no one’s perfect, but I don’t think our men and women who are fighting for us did it intentionally. I’ll never believe that.”
Notice the immediate sleight of hand here.
There’s just no way in hell that the U.S. government, media, or populace would accept that the violent deaths of 175 people, mostly children attending school, came as the result of some unfortunate mistake made by a foreign military, especially a Middle Eastern military. It would be largely considered repulsive just to refer to such an act as a “mistake.” But because we’re learning that it was likely a U.S. missile that destroyed the Iranian school and killed 175 people, we’ve already moved right past the issue of intent and onto how the “mistake” happened. The investigation is apparently still ongoing, but we’ve already un-indicted the U.S. of what would certainly be considered a heinous war crime.
Mind you, President Donald Trump had already made the bold claim that the missile that struck Shajarah Tayyebeh came from Iran, even going as far as to besmirch the nation’s ability to fire missiles with accuracy.
“In my opinion, based on what I’ve seen, that was done by Iran,” Trump told reporters on Air Force One on Saturday. “They’re very inaccurate, as you know, with their munitions. They have no accuracy whatsoever. It was done by Iran.”
Trump also noted during a news conference that “the Tomahawk is sold and used by other countries,” suggesting that Iran may be one of those countries, which it is not.
Thankfully, not all reporters have been willing to let that absurdity slide.
History should remember that the president responded this way after evidence showed his war of choice killed so many civilians, including children, who had reportedly been dropped off at school by their parents not long before it was turned into ruins.
Even if we were to accept that what happened to the Shajarah Tayyebeh elementary school building and its innocent occupants was simply a tragic accident, it would still speak to the well-documented incompetence of this administration.
Here’s more on the “mistake,” via the Times:
The school, in the town of Minab, is on the same block as buildings used by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Navy, a top target of the U.S. military strikes. The site of the school was originally part of the base. Officials briefed on the inquiry said the building was not always used as a school, though it is not clear precisely when the school opened on the site.
A visual investigation by The Times showed the building housing the school had been fenced off from the military base between 2013 and 2016.
Satellite imagery reviewed by The Times showed that watchtowers that once stood near the building had been removed, three public entrances were opened to the school, ground was cleared and play areas including a sports field were painted on asphalt, and walls were painted blue and pink.
The “target coding” provided by the Defense Intelligence Agency, the military intelligence agency that helps develops targets, labeled the school building as a military target when it was passed to Central Command, the military headquarters overseeing the war, according to people briefed on the preliminary findings of the investigation.
Investigators do not yet fully understand how the outdated data was sent to Central Command or whether the Defense Intelligence Agency had updated information.
Military targeting is very complex and involves multiple agencies. Many officers would have been responsible for verifying that the data is correct, and officers at Central Command are responsible for checking the information they receive from the Defense Intelligence Agency or another intelligence agency. But in a fast-moving situation, like the opening days of a war, information is sometimes not verified.
But again, it can’t be emphasized enough that we’re talking about “the opening days of a war” of choice. A decision was made without vital information being verified, and that decision likely resulted in a civilian death toll that would have had the U.S. government as revenge-hungry as it was after 9/11 if the shoe were on the other foot.
MAGA supporters have already responded to the news in Iran by taking from it the idea that all Muslims should be forced to leave the U.S. for the safety of U.S. citizens — because, in their minds, they’re always on the right side of history, and outside nations are always the bad guys.
History needs to record this era in U.S. politics by presenting it as the cesspool of bigotry, xenophobia, and willful incompetence and corruption that it is, because the effort to water it down will be tremendous, and letting that narrative stand would be the true “mistake.”