Thread

US troop deaths during Iran war exceed Pentagon count by at least four

200 points · 139 comments · wslh

option · 1789773847 · focus · HN ↗
US murdered 123 children in school, this has to be the top story of all world news for a year
1. ericmay · 1789776463 · focus · HN ↗
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  1. throwaway173738 · 1789777184 · focus · HN ↗
    That doesn’t excuse us doing it when we’re trying to cop the moral high ground. Otherwise we’re just in a race to see who can do the worst things.
    ericmay · 1789777407 · focus · HN ↗
    Ours was a mistake, not intentional. There is a huge difference.
    ceejayoz · 1789777463 · focus · HN ↗
    "We were just very negligent" is probably not a huge comfort to the kids' families.
    <a href="https://www.npr.org/2026/08/31/nx-s1-5948118/pentagon-explores-partially-restoring-civilian-protection-program" rel="nofollow">https://www.npr.org/2026/08/31/nx-s1-5948118/pentagon-explor...
    > Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth gutted a program that's designed to limit the number of civilians killed by American forces. He did that over unanimous objections from top commanders after polling them, according to reporting from ProPublica.
    ericmay · 1789777877 · focus · HN ↗
    Any given policy choice we make results in bad things happening to someone. War is just politics by other means. If we stand around and do nothing, maybe Iran kills 5000 kids for being homosexual over the next few years? If we close all the coal mines a whole entire state goes on an opioid addiction. If we don’t close the coal mines the environment suffers and people die from pollution. If we don’t kill millions of Japanese soldiers maybe China is still a Japanese colony.
    Life is tough. There aren’t perfect answers. Cackling criticism from the safety of the couch doesn’t solve anything.
    ceejayoz · 1789778207 · focus · HN ↗
    "We got rid of the people who prevent civilian casualties and a bunch of civilians died shortly thereafter" isn't the unpreventable random act of God you're trying to make it out to be.
    There are often not perfect answers in life. But there are definitely some wrong ones.
    ericmay · 1789778524 · focus · HN ↗
    They aren’t the only people who prevent civilian casualties though. It also doesn’t prevent civilian casualties generally given that civilian casualties have occurred prior to this organization being disbanded.
    Anyway let’s talk about the 30,000+ people Iran has murdered. Should they set up a board that prevents their military from killing protestors in person with machine guns?
    xethos · 1789780935 · focus · HN ↗
    > Anyway let’s talk about the 30,000+ people Iran has murdered
    If America wants to play World Police they need to be squeaky clean. Nobody likes a dirty cop. That is the point that's being made, that is the standard America is falling further away from, and that's why Whataboutism isn't the strong argument you think it is.
    ericmay · 1789833949 · focus · HN ↗
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