cross-posted from: https://news.abolish.capital/post/33264
US military investigators have said it is likely its forces were responsible for a strike on a girls’ school in Iran that killed scores of children and has been condemned as a war crime, according to a report by Reuters.
The attack on the Minab girls’ school in southern Iran on Saturday is believed to have killed at least 165 people, mostly children under the age of 12.
The UN’s education agency, Unesco, said the attack was a “grave violation of humanitarian law”.
US war secretary Pete Hegseth said on Wednesday that the military was investigating the incident. Investigators have not reached a final conclusion and it is still unclear what evidence contributed to their assessment, Reuters reported, citing two unnamed officials.
It was also unclear what type of munitions were used and who was responsible, the outlet said.
An investigation by news outlet Middle East Eye determined that the attack on the school was a “double tap” strike – where a target is hit a second time in order to kill rescuers who come to the aid of the injured.
“When the first bomb hit the school, one of the teachers and the principal moved a group of students to the prayer hall to protect them,” a Red Crescent medic told the outlet, citing conversations he had with survivors.
“The principal called the parents and told them to come and pick up their children. But the second bomb hit that area as well. Only a small number of those who had taken shelter survived.”
The UK has joined the war on Iran – which is illegal because it was not approved by the UN or US congress – by allowing the use of its bases for strikes against the country.
Prime minister Keir Starmer has claimed the UK’s involvement is an act of self-defence, despite the fact the US and Israel started the war.
From Novara Media via This RSS Feed.
I wanted to believe that it wasn’t us, but there’s isn’t any malice or incompetence I could put past this administration.
Ultimately, even if Israel were the ones that did the strike, whose bombs were they using? And whose taxes paid for those bombs? And whose leaders worked with them to start this bloodbath?
There’s no malice you should put past any US administration. Weddings aren’t any more okay to bomb than schools.
American culture is imperialism.
No, we are way worse. Our super power is extinction. Where we kill off all our enemies and take what was theirs. Not just a war, an extermination.
The sooner you unlearn the propaganda that the US are the “good guys” of the world, the better. It isn’t just about this administration either. There has never been a time in our history where we weren’t needlessly cruel, as a matter of policy.
I have to wonder if any of those third party / Stein voter / no voters are having second thoughts as to their voting choice in the previous binary election.
These deaths would not have occurred with Harris.
By the logic of these folks in the past, does that mean they are complicit with all deaths to follow?
Edit: I’ll take that as a no. At least from the lemmy.ml tankie spillover bridgade below. Some serious BoTh SiDeS bullshit going down.
So I’ll take this moment to note a PSA:
I have to wonder if liberals started blaming democrats for their shortcomings if the party would actually change and become electable.
These deaths would not have occurred if Biden had put someone in charge of the DoJ willing to prosecute Trump for… anything really.
See how easy this is?
I put most of the blame on Biden, but I also noticed one was unwilling to fundamentally address my points. Curiously, most of the people who complain about Democrats don’t seem to be very engaged in the Democratic primaries. By all means, I hope said groups (btw I’m not “Liberal” unless Bernie and AOC and Mandani and Talarico are) engage heavily in these primaries and push out AIPAC and conservative Democrats just the same.
But at the end of the day, the point remains: (1) Binary outcome election. (2) Milquetoast vs. Pure Fascism. Anything less than voting Milquetoast was a +1 for Fascism and the death of these Iranian children. (Again, using the same logic as these groups used for Biden and Gaza). See how easy that was?
Now again:
Is there regret for not voting Harris? (hindsight 20/20 and also making the massive assumption this poll is as accurate as people actually voting – lest we just use polls to vote instead of voting itself, right?). So far, I’m taking it as a no.
Are Uncommitted / Third Party / Couch-Sitters complicit in these deaths the same way complicity was drawn with Biden and Gaza by the logic of these same groups?
At the end of the day you’re angry or upset or critical at the wrong people. Voter apathy is the issue at hand and milquetoastyness is the problem.
You would rather place blame on people voting FOR SOMETHING, than the party who has shit the bed so many times that the majority of Americans dont vote at all. Truly oblivious to the fact you’re misplaced criticism might just be the straw to break the camels back on those people’s engagement.
I’ll take “milquetoastyness” over outright fascism any day. Would I love more progressive candidates across the board? Yes, absolutely! (By the way, are you engaged in your Democratic Primaries in your state right now?)
And so would any other sane, rational individual.
It’s kind of like the 1 nazi at the table argument. If you’re willing to sit out an election when literal nazis are running even if you don’t identify as one, and don’t absolutely love the alternative binary non-fascist choice, then you’re basically still a nazi.
I pass your litmus test for engagement. You are kind of missing my point and talking past me though so you’re not passing mine.
Turns out commenting on posts and being involved with the primaries are not mutually exclusive.
The war is happening because it’s Israeli policy. The Biden administration’s policy was to facilitate Israeli policy entirely. The Harris campaign’s position was to adopt the Biden platform entirely. Having a super lethal military was her big announcement at the dnc convention. In the campaign, she criticized trump for being too weak on Iran. I don’t know why people think she would be better.
No Palestinian, or Iranian school children would feel safer or even as-safe with Trump than Harris as bound by the coalition of Democrats who included Rashida Tlaib herself and Bernie Sanders and other vocal critics of Israel. I certainly wouldn’t for me or my family! I’d be outright praying for Harris and I’m not even religious!
Are you involved in your state Democratic primaries? Who are you supporting in said primaries?
(edit: This person’s evasiveness and wedge-driving vector suggests a far-right bot that most likely does not originate from America. Tag them.)
lol. As if ‘the coalition’ has ever allowed itself to be influenced by Talib even a little. Biden presided over, and participated in an active genocide. When given the opportunity to break from that policy, Harris doubled down on it in spite of political interests.
Wake me up when Tlaib stops being a Democrat then.
Until then, she knows what you do not.
Are you involved in your state’s Democratic primaries? Whom are you supporting to change the makeup of the Democratic party!?
Look, I agree with the sentiment that we need to participate in the primary process and create a better pool of Democrats. The party needs to be entirely reformed. Part of that process is smacking down comments that suggest that anyone with as destructive a history as Harris could reasonably represent such change. Fact is, Harris is entirely representative of the corrupt, feckless, collaborative nature of the modern Democratic Party. It is her and what she represents so well, that has built a party that has facilitated the rise of right wing fascism for at least 40 years. We should have no tolerance for the likes of Harris.
I had much criticism of Harris as I did Biden. But Biden proved to be better than Trump in a myriad of ways:
If we only focus on one aspect of someone’s policy (which even then I refuse to believe Harris is as bad as Trump on Gaza), it can skew the big picture.
Unfortunately, my vote for Harris wasn’t ideal; it was simply a matter of damage-control. It’s my firm belief that these US service-members would not have been sent. It’s my firm belief that these 100+ Iranian school children would not have died. Leaving aside all the issues I previously mentioned where Harris and the ENTIRE Democratic party is objectively-better on (leaving aside, you know, Harris, Biden, Obama, etc. NOT being in the Epstein Files).
You are making ‘harm reduction’ and an ‘anti-litmus testing’ arguments. There are merits to both, but let me explain how my positions have shifted in recent years. I hope that you and the Democratic Party are interested.
It is very clear to me that 40 years of harm reduction voting hasn’t worked at all. The party has only lurched rightward at every juncture and refuses to meaningfully mount opposition to fascism.
There are some issues that are so egregiously simple and important, that they serve as good measures of how an official will operate while in office. Genocide is an example of this. If you are willing to even just play footsie with that policy, you cannot be trusted on anything else, full stop.
As I said before, it is incumbent upon us to get better people nominated. But the party needs to understand that me (and perhaps others) are no longer willing to move to them (that is, compromise to suit their conservative ideology). They have to start coming to me/us. You will probably say that a (small-d) democratic party’s positions are dictated by who we nominate and elect, so I should be focusing my efforts on driving better nominations. I get it. But it is also true that this party has a very strong corporate-captured leadership that regularly puts its thumb on that democratic process. That is who I am addressing with these comments.
Those children only see US bombs raining down on them.
The rest of your comment aside: “These deaths would not have occurred with Harris” is pure wishful thinking. Unfalsifiable yes, but it flies in the face of 80 years of bipartisan US foreign policy towards Iran (and Israel).
We can’t know for sure, of course. But we do know whom Bibi preferred and didn’t prefer.
We also know Harris has already publicly condemned this war. It isn’t much, but it’s unquestionably better than the rapist pedophile who also caves to Putin at every turn.
Israel donated more to Harris’ campaign than Trump’s campaign, btw.
That’s true. I also saw Bibi meeting with candidate-Trump more than Harris.
Couple private Mar-a-Lago meetings, if I recall.
Leaving aside PAC donations from zionist Miriam Adelson, second only to Musk in givings.
You really believe Netanyahu preferred Harris or Biden over Trump?
I think Netanyahu knew that both candidates were going to support Israel regardless.
Even if every eligible voter has turned out, Trump would have won.
https://www.npr.org/2025/06/26/nx-s1-5447450/trump-2024-election-non-voters-coalition
Let’s place the blame where it belongs.
Or if you want to insist on blaming the left, blame Harris for not running a better campaign.
Two things can be true at the same time.
Indeed, it takes the aggregation of numerous groups to put someone past the post for a win; each subset pointing the finger at another does no good.
I put most of the blame on Biden, but I also noticed one was unwilling to fundamentally address my points:
Is there regret for not voting Harris? (hindsight 20/20 and also making the massive assumption this poll is as accurate as people actually voting – lest we just use polls to vote instead of voting itself, right?) So far, I’m taking it as a no.
Are Uncommitted / Third Party / Couch-Sitters complicit in these deaths the same way complicity was drawn with Biden and Gaza by the logic of these same groups regretful of their choice?
I’m not entirely sold that a war with Iran wouldn’t have happened under Harris. She was a supporter of Israel and her unwillingness to change her stance on the genocide helped usher in her defeat in the election.
Again, considering even if the couch sitters had voted Trump would have still won, I’m not sure why you’re insisting that there should be blood on their hands for this.
The Democratic Party has a problem with fascism - they like it as much as Republicans, they just put a prettier wrapping on it.
But Harris publicly stated she sought a 2-state solution, called for a ceasefire, and sought to wind down the conflict overall. Regardless, I don’t think anyone in their right mind wouldn’t prefer Harris over “turn it into the Riveria” Trump who said, “Finish the job.”
One is a known quantity; the other is an unknown quantity.
Again, respectfully, polls aren’t votes. We don’t know that. If polls were as accurate as votes, we wouldn’t need to go vote.
In the words of Carl Sagan, extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. I see no extraordinary evidence for what can only be described as boldfaced false equivalence gaslighting, but I am also unsurprised this narrative is so common for misinformed tankies.
A two state solution is supporting the genocide, let’s be real here. Harris didn’t convince enough voters that she wasn’t going to be beholden to Israel and that’s on her and the Dems. And Biden, frankly.
Trump also brokered a ceasefire that Israel broke time and time again.
Considering the Dems once again allowed enough votes to allow this admin to continue their war in Iran, what more evidence needs to be presented? They profit from war the same as their Republican counterparts.
Don’t engage with any moron who thinks “not voting” is a useful strategy to get anything done.
I hear you. I don’t expect much from them; I engage to ensure newcomers who know no better don’t get fooled – which is their objective to deceive.
You think one person trying to have a conversation with you is a brigade?!
Truly wild how my server scares .world into hallucinations.
Edit: he tagged me from a conversation in this thread and still doesn’t even realize he is only talking to one person…
I love that I already have you tagged lmao.
Yes or No: Western Leaders aside, Xi is a authoritarian war criminal, as well as Putin.
Try your best to answer yes or no without Whataboutism deflection.
Edit: Oof, they dodged this mightily lol. First comment they downvoted and refused to acknowledge thus far.
How convenient!
I’m not even from your server lol
The paranoia!