Memorial Day should prompt the Pentagon to confront civilian harm in Iran

On this Memorial Day, we should take stock that the U.S. military remains one of the most respected public institutions in America. And for good reason. Our military has strived mightily since its Vietnam War nadir to foster professionalism grounded on honor and implemented programs to help ensure that the American way of fighting comports with the law of war and American values to the greatest extent possible.

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The Pentagon should honor service members who have paid the ultimate sacrifice this Memorial Day by recommitting to the American way of fighting. It should pay tribute to the fallen by reinforcing moral integrity for those currently serving.

One tangible way our military and civilian leaders can do this is by firmly and quickly owning the mistakes that have killed or injured civilians in our war in Iran. Prompt and transparent investigations should lead to lessons in how to avoid future tragedies and assure those in uniform, the American public and our country’s allies that our military operations comport with U.S. values and the law.  

This is not a hypothetical plea. A U.S. missile strike killed almost 200 Iranian girls and their teachers on the first day of the war, and there has been no formal U.S. acknowledgment, explanation or apology to date. There are also credible allegations, reportedly verified by The New York Times, that the U.S. has struck 22 civilian schools and medical facilities in Iran.

President Donald Trump’s Pentagon has systematically dismantled the “Civilian Harm Mitigation and Response” program, a comprehensive effort to mitigate civilian deaths and injuries caused by U.S. military operations. A recent Department of Defense internal report found the gutted program is both ineffective and legally noncompliant. President Trump has also repeatedly threatened to commit war crimes that would severely harm Iranian civilians, such as destroying all Iranian power plants.

One would hope that our senior military leaders would come out to strongly state that’s not how the U.S. military wages war. Yet when Adm. Brad Cooper, the U.S. Central Command commander responsible for combat operations in Iran, testified on Capitol Hill this month, his words and demeanor did not give the American people or our service members confidence that military operations are being conducted according to the law and American values.

When Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., citing the above-mentioned Times report, asked Adm. Cooper, “How do you explain the publicly available information that 22 schools have been hit and multiple hospitals?” he responded, “There’s no way we can corroborate that. No indication of that whatsoever.

The law and our values require that our military do its best not to destroy schools and hospitals, and that our military professionals do everything feasible to avoid killing innocent Iranian civilians and investigate claims that innocents have been harmed. But despite estimates that more than 1,700 Iranian civilians have been killed and detailed reports of more than 20 strikes on specific schools and medical facilities, Adm. Cooper told Congress that there’s only “one active civilian casualty investigation from the 13,629 munitions” — the Feb. 28 U.S. Tomahawk strike of the girls’ school in Minab.

Given that the highly capable U.S. military with its vast intelligence resources reports exact numbers of Iranian missile launchers destroyed in the Iran war, it should be easy for the military to quickly determine if it struck other hospitals and schools. U.S. Central Command’s own targeting assessment processes include post-strike battle damage assessments.