[surgical_fire]

Sounds too convoluted, and implies that those in power in the countries attacking Iran have a grand plan that goes beyond killing people in Iran.

The explanation is simpler. They want death, so they are bombing shit indiscriminately

Hitting a school was not a mistake, it was the point.

[_alternator_]

I think a tragic mistake like this was foreseeable (in a vague sense), but I highly doubt that anyone intentionally bombed an elementary school full of children.

The NYT had some good reporting on this, and you can see how the mistake was made. The elementary school used to be part of the IRGC base until 2016. Then it was fenced off and made an elementary school. The “shooter” (in this case, the USA) had a duty to check that the target was currently a valid military target. This verification, if it was done at all, was clearly the problem.

I’m sure you have someone directly responsible for this mistake who is going to have a hard time living with themselves. But like I said, starting a war leads to inevitable tragedy, and I doubt the people who are indirectly responsible will ever recognize their culpability in this.

[ryandrake]

It really doesn't matter whether it was a mistake or how the mistake was made. If it were your kid's elementary school that got blown up, would you say "Oh, well, it wasn't intentional. The bad guys just had outdated intelligence. These things happen."

[kgwgk]

> It really doesn't matter whether it was a mistake

It does matter if people go around saying that “they want death, so they are bombing shit indiscriminately.”

[xrd]

I'm not sure how "they want war, so they are bombing negligently" is any different. Or morally better.

[Sabinus]

It's not, but that's not what the USA wants. They want Iran to stop destabilising the ME, and to eliminate the threat to the USA consisting of the Iranian nuke program, the ballistic missile program, and the religious zeal to use them.

What on earth makes you assert the USA just 'wants war'? If this war goes on for too long Trump is cooked. He'll lose the election and might even be unpopular enough to cop the persecution he deserves.

[mullingitover]

> What on earth makes you assert the USA just 'wants war'?

The "Department of War" they created before promptly starting an absolute textbook War of Aggression is evidence beyond a reasonable doubt that the war was premeditated.

[surgical_fire]

> stop destabilising the ME

USA is the destabilizing force. In the case of Iran specifically, what happenes today is in many ways a consequence of the 1953 coup.

[etc-hosts]

> They want Iran to stop destabilising the ME, and to eliminate the threat to the USA consisting of the Iranian nuke program, the ballistic missile program, and the religious zeal to use them.

US and Israeli leaders have said recently that the war will continue until Iran is not a threat, for mostly the exact reasons you just listed. I'm not sure how you bomb the religious zeal out of someone.

I was listening to a fairly right wing British pundit today, who is very publicly funded by British and European NATO interests, he said that the US saying they will continue to bomb Iran until it is not a threat reminded him a lot of one of Russia's state Ukraine war goals of "we will de-Nazify Ukraine".

very open ended nebulous goals with the benefit of being easily stretched around any agenda the invading party has at the moment.

[surgical_fire]

> “they want death, so they are bombing shit indiscriminately.”

It's still the most probable explanation

[SauntSolaire]

Disagree, negligence seems more likely

[surgical_fire]

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/world/hegseth-insists-the-iran-...

"No stupid rules of engagement, no nation building quagmire, no democracy building exercise, no politically correct wars. We fight to win, and we don't waste time or lives," Hegseth said.

Words of your Secretary of War, not mine.

This is not a woke war. This is a war where you bomb schools and kill children.

[colonCapitalDee]

You're intentionally missing the point. Every time a bomb drops we're rolling the dice. Hits on civilian targets are inevitable, just like bugs are inevitable. The only solution is not to go to war at all. Don't blame the person who dropped the bomb, blame the people who ordered the bombs to be dropped.

[surgical_fire]

No, I firmly believe that decades of dehumanization of Iranians in particular and Muslims in general makes this sort of "tragic mistake" desirable.

I don't think whoever was responsible for this gives many fucks about the lives of Iranians.

If a foreign power bombed anything in the US and children died people would just consider them monsters, without further considerations. No one would be pondering about faulty intel.

I refuse to launder the vileness of the aggressors here.

[mrguyorama]

>but I highly doubt that anyone intentionally bombed an elementary school full of children

Hegseth said to your face "No stupid rules of engagement", "This is not a politically correct war"

These are the people who have been purposely and loudly defending Israel bombing innocent people. They genuinely believe, as they say to your face, that it is important and necessary to be brutal and extreme to win war.

Intentionally disregarding rules of engagement and protecting innocent life IS intentionally bombing that school. Civilian casualties are a reality of war and the best you can do is work your ass off to reduce them, so openly advocating for NOT doing that is intentionally killing people.

[_alternator_]

Trust me, I’m not trying to defend the leadership of the DoW. But I do believe that there is a difference between reckless indifference and actually intentionally bombing a girls school.

Both sound like war crimes to me, but the latter sounds implausible given the known facts. Let’s not redefine words like ‘intentional’ just because we are appalled. Giving something awful an “awfuller” name is not going to help.

[Sabinus]

This is real life not cartoon villany. The US administration is not a kind one, but their goals are not just 'death for people in Iran'.

[donkeybeer]

Why else would they start an unprovoked war while pretending to negotiate peace with Iran? They want death of Iranians.

[SauntSolaire]

For the same reason they deposed Maduro, control, obviously.

Your mistake is thinking they care about Iranians enough to want them dead. The reality is that they want Iran to bend the knee, at which point they'll go back to not thinking about them at all.

[killjoywashere]

Yeah, Hanlon's Razor applies.