As Trump Bombs Iran, We Need to Reckon With the American War Machine

"We in the U.S. need to reckon with the fact that so much of our state wealth, capacity, and technology goes toward burying children in rubble."

"Israel has the right to defend itself." The other was a video from the Iranian city of Minab, where the first reports of casualties were emerging. The joint U.S.-Israeli attack had hit a girls' elementary school; the death toll kept ticking higher and higher. At the time of publication, Iranian authorities said 108 people, mostly schoolchildren, had been killed in the strike, with many more injured."

"The two countries were "shedding even the pretense and facade of the principles of a rules-based international order that has already worked in their favor." In the wake of those strikes, once the immediate violence ceased, we largely heard crickets from U.S. lawmakers. This, despite the fact that those strikes, like these, were illegal under U.S. and international law."

A U.S.-Israeli military attack on Iran struck a girls' elementary school in Minab, killing 108 people, mostly schoolchildren. While Israeli officials invoke self-defense justifications, the attack highlights the contradiction between stated principles of international law and actual military conduct. U.S. lawmakers have largely remained silent on the illegality of these strikes under both U.S. and international law. The author argues that American wealth, capacity, and technology are being directed toward civilian casualties, and that continued lack of accountability for such actions undermines the credibility of a rules-based international order and raises concerns about future escalation.

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