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Iran school bombing: grounds to believe US was behind atrocity, UN finds

354 points · 307 comments · hebelehubele

  1. Wildgoose · · focus · HN ↗
    Seeing as it was a "double tap" it was clearly a deliberate target. Bomb the school, wait until officers from the nearby base with kids at the school arrive to try and rescue their daughters and hit it again. Clearly a war crime, possibly using Israeli targeting information, which clouds which State is ultimately responsible.
    1. jvanderbot · · focus · HN ↗
      Yes, the definition of war crime is not "intentionally targeted building" it is "intentionally targeted building that it knew was non-military and full of civilians". If you plausibly believed it to be a military target, then it's plausibly not a war crime.

      The question about whether US launched the missiles is not really in dispute, the intent and knowledge is in dispute. NYT did a great analysis essentially concluding it was plausibly a mistake, not an intentional or indiscriminate civilian attack.

      More here: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=49739018#49741081">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=49739018#49741081

      1. pphysch · · focus · HN ↗
        How can anyone take this argument seriously when the DoW was simultaneously committing dozens of extrajudicial executions of small boat users in the Gulf?
        1. wand3r · · focus · HN ↗
          I am not defending this morally, but these are clearly a group of the least competent stewards of the military in a long while. They were &quot;completely clear on OPSEC&quot;, with a left-leaning Atlantic reporter in the signal group chat. This bombing also coalesced support in Iran and had a big rally around the flag effect. Data in Iran is hard and the timetable was extremely fast, again, due to incompetence and the inability to constrain a vassal. So its appalling to say, but a bunch of morons with LLMS and outdated targeting, pushed to meet the objectives of corrupt idiots is almost certainly the cause. I personally consider it a war crime, but I am not sure if it meets the legal definition.
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