Three disgusting things U.S. has done in Iran war

I’m no fan of Iran. I don’t know anyone who is. For sure, Iran had to be prevented from building a nuclear weapon.

But they were nowhere close to being able to do this. And eight months ago Trump said that the Iranian nuclear program had been obliterated by U.S. strikes, leaving them years away from being able to fashion a nuclear weapon, and about a decade away from having a ICBM capable of striking our country with a nuclear bomb.

So clearly there was no imminent threat to the United States from Iran. But Trump attacked anyway, for reasons that remain unclear. Maybe it was a desire for regime change in Iran, or Iran’s short range missiles, or Iran’s almost 50 year history of hating our country, or Iran’s previous attacks against Americans, or the fact that Israel was about to attack Iran.

Or maybe Trump just felt like starting another war in the Middle East, since our war against Iraq went so well for us. (That’s sarcasm, of course.)

Regardless, we’re now engaged in a war that is tanking the stock market, causing a huge increase in crude oil and gasoline prices, and causing many innocent people to die in the Middle East, along with six U.S. soldiers.

In short, the war is a mess, and getting messier. Every day brings new reasons to question the wisdom of Trump’s decision to start the Iran war. Here’s three things the United States has done that disgust me.

(1) Killed 175 people, many or most who were children, in a strike against a school. The Department of Defense, which Hegseth likes to call the Department of War, hasn’t admitted that a U.S. missile hit a school in southern Iran, killing over a hundred children. However, the New York Times analyzed videos and other information, concluding that our military was responsible.

The Feb. 28 strike that hit an elementary school in the southern Iranian town of Minab is the deadliest known episode of civilian casualties since the United States and Israel attacked Iran — and no side has yet taken responsibility.

But a body of evidence assembled by The New York Times — including newly released satellite imagery, social media posts and verified videos — indicates the school building was severely damaged by a precision strike that occurred at the same time as attacks on an adjacent naval base operated by the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps.

And official statements that U.S. forces were attacking naval targets near the Strait of Hormuz, where the I.R.G.C. base is located, suggest they were most likely to have carried out the strike.

(2) Used a submarine to sink an Iranian warship near Sri Lanka that had been invited by Indian officials to take part in naval exercises. Another New York Times story describes the disturbing way the sinking of the Iranian vessel happened.

Just days before it was torpedoed by a U.S. submarine, an Iranian frigate, the IRIS Dena, had joined 41 vessels and naval personnel from more than 70 countries for peacetime multilateral exercises off India’s eastern coast to reaffirm commitments to freedom of navigation and maritime law. The strike on the ship on Wednesday, and the killing of at least 84 of those on board, has now become a political mess for India.

…India finds itself in a deeply awkward position, caught between Iran and the United States, Israel and the Arab states of the Gulf. India has been a friendly partner to all of them in recent years. But the government has issued no expressions of outrage or sympathy to either side during the first days of the new war against Iran.

Ordinary Indians spoke more easily. S. Venkatesh looks after the scenic park of Kailasagiri, near the port where the international fleet docked. Officers and sailors, including the crew of the Dena, were welcomed ashore and toured the park’s sights, including giant white statues of the Hindu deities Shiva and Parvati.

“It is really heart-wrenching,” said Mr. Venkatesh. “Only a few days ago, I shook hands with these young men from Iran,” he said. They were served snacks and posed for photos.

(3) Joking about the Iran war as a sort of video game even after six American soldiers had been killed. Previous presidential administrations took going to war seriously. The Trump administration views war as a joke, a meme, a source of entertainment. Here’s excerpts from a Washington Post story, “White House is transforming the Iran strikes into a meme war.”

On Thursday, less than a week after an airstrike killed dozens of children in an Iranian elementary school, and one day after the Pentagon named two of the six American soldiers killed by a drone, the White House posted a video on X blending real-world bombing footage with clips from action movies and video games.

Titled “JUSTICE THE AMERICAN WAY,” the video included memes and jokes from “Top Gun,” “Halo” and “Dragon Ball Z” and was widely promoted by top officials in President Donald Trump’s administration. White House deputy communications director Kaelan Dorr reposted itwith the caption, “Wake up, Daddy’s Home.”

Many online were outraged by what they said was a sick and callous joke from the nation’s highest public office. “Little girls are dead. Six Americans are dead,” Jon Favreau, a liberal podcaster and speechwriter for former president Barack Obama, wrote on X. “It’s not a video game. … It’s not another chance to troll the libs. It’s f—ing war.”

The video is part of an unprecedented White House digital operation turning the Iran war effort into a meme campaign, mixing unclassified missile footage from U.S. Central Command with the kinds of fictional and fantasy content young people share online for laughs.