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

354 points · 307 comments · hebelehubele

  1. albatross79 · · focus · HN ↗
    Arguing whether it was intentional or a mistake is stupid. It doesn't matter, the enormity of it should shake everyone involved. That it doesn't is the real tell of what kind of people these are.
    1. senordevnyc · · focus · HN ↗
      It makes a huge, huge difference. Gross criminal negligence that results in the deaths of many civilians should of course be fully investigated and prosecuted, but it’s not the kind of pure evil that would do this intentionally. And I don’t believe you think they’re actually the same either.
      1. albatross79 · · focus · HN ↗
        It is the same. At a certain level, intentions don't matter any more.
        1. mahboi · · focus · HN ↗
          This is what you say when there's been a repeated pattern of negligence. They struck a school once (edit: well one event with multiple strikes). The school was attached to a navy building. There should still be an investigation into the attack.
          1. cogman10 · · focus · HN ↗
            There was no reason to strike Iran in the first place. The absurd claim that "they were about to get nukes in 3 days!" is something that Israel has been claiming for 20 years. Our own intelligence agencies have said that they were not developing nukes.

            If this was a military command center, this would still be a war crime. The US was not at war with Iran before it attacked them.

            Unprovoked aggression is completely wrong.

            1. mahboi · · focus · HN ↗
              I agree that we shouldn't be in this war, but that doesn't make everything a war crime.
              1. cogman10 · · focus · HN ↗
                It's a war of aggression. That is a war crime.

                Iraq was also a war crime.

                The reason Putin is a war criminal is because of his unprovoked attack of Ukraine.

                1. senordevnyc · · focus · HN ↗
                  This was a stupid war to get into and it’s been prosecuted embarrassingly poorly, but Iran has been sponsoring terrorist groups all over the world for decades. They’re not some innocent country going about their business who was suddenly attacked unprovoked.
                  1. cogman10 · · focus · HN ↗
                    > but Iran has been sponsoring terrorist groups all over the world for decades.

                    Let's say I grant this. The problem you run into is these terrorist groups have not attacked the US. The last time Iran did anything aggressive towards the US was in the 1980s.

                    In fact, Iran has aided the US in going after common enemies like ISIS/ISIL and Al-Qaeda.

                    The terrorist groups supported by Iran have primarily been groups fighting Israel, not the US. That's what makes it particularly unprovoked.

                    In fact, the US has a stronger argument to attack Saudi Arabia than it does Iran because they actually have funded terrorists that directly attacked the US. Heck, you could argue that the US is justified in directly attacking Russia with this sort of argument.

                    1. senordevnyc · · focus · HN ↗
                      For better or worse, Israel is our ally, and countries go to war on behalf of their allies being attacked.

                      And yes, the US has a valid argument for attacking Saudi Arabia for funding terrorists that have attacked the US. That they have not does not in any way bolster your argument.

                      Sorry, there’s just no rational argument for the idea that the US attacking Iran was an unprovoked war of aggression and thus a war crime.

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