США нанесли удар по свадебной процессии в Иране, унесший жизни мирных жителей

John Boyd, who died in 1997, was America’s greatest strategist. In 2003, just after the Iraq War started, associate William Lind explained that one of Boyd’s “most important contributions to military theory was his observation that war is waged at three levels, the physical, the mental and the moral. The physical level is the weakest and the moral level is the strongest, with the mental in between.” This same insight applies to President Donald Trump’s war in Iran. Trump and Israel began the Iran War on Feb. 28 of this year, more than six months ago. On that date, a U.S. Tomahawk missile destroyed an elementary school in Minab, killing 120 schoolchildren and 36 civilian adults. The New York Times reported a preliminary military investigation found the attack 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.” Although some blamed artificial intelligence for the mistake, the publication Semafor found the culprits were human. U.S. officials misread satellite imagery and analysts “missed publicly available information about a school located inside the Revolutionary Guard compound.” It didn’t help that the Trump administration slashed, by 90%, the Pentagon division dedicated to avoiding civilian targets. On April 30, two months into the war, the Senate Armed Services Committee conducted a hearing. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-New York, asked Secretary of War Pete Hegseth about the 90% reduction and the “targeting that is resulting in the destruction of schools, hospitals, civilian places.” Prior to slashing the Civilian Harm Mitigation and Response program, Hegseth actually polled commanders on whether doing so was a good idea. Every commander rejected the idea. They likely had in mind Department of Defense Instruction 3000.17, dated Dec. 21, 2023, which stipulates: “DoD Components that engage in military operations will comply with law of war requirements for the protection of civilians and civilian objects … including by taking feasible precautions in planning and conducting attacks as well as outside the context of conducting attacks.” But that didn’t stop Hegseth. Gillibrand continued with the most important question: “And do you know the impact of a strategic failure at a war when you have so many civilian casualties? You may have tactically completed a mission well, but strategically [it] is not meeting your goals because of the harms to civilians. What is the cost of that?” While Hegseth argued that, “No military, no country, works harder at every echelon to ensure they protect civilian lives than the United States military,” the reality on the ground raises serious concerns about whether that’s true. Gillibrand’s analysis of losing the strategic war because of the attacks on civilians echoed Boyd’s warning. And recent developments show the Trump administration is continuing to disregard the human and moral cost of the war. On Sept. 1, in attacks on Iran ordered by Trump, an American bomb struck a wedding party in Kuhestak. The New York Times reported a weapons expert it consulted plus visual analysis confirmed the bomb had been released by American forces “as they carried out intense attacks in southern Iran.” Iran’s Red Crescent Society reported at least five wedding guests were killed, including a 6-year-old boy, and at least 67 other people were wounded. On Sept. 2, Capt. Tim Hawkins, a U.S. Central Command spokesman, told the Washington Examiner, “We’re aware of the reports, which originated from Iranian state media, and we are looking into them. The U.S. military never targets civilians, unlike the IRGC,” referring to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. Pepe Escobar, the Asia Times correspondent with extensive contacts in Iran, was asked about the attack on Judge Andrew Napolitano’s Sept. 3 podcast and said, “Iranian public opinion is absolutely petrified with horror that this could happen.” If Democrats win control of the House after the Nov. 3 election, as seems likely, and maybe the Senate, I look forward to extensive hearings on the Iran War, including the moral dimension. We Americans are a moral people. We demand the honor of our troops not be tarnished by atrocities. John Seiler is on the SCNG Editorial Board and a U.S. Army veteran