America’s Gaza
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March 10, 2026
America’s Gaza
The bombing of Tehran.
Michael T. Klare
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US-Israeli joint bombings near Azadi Tower in Tehran, on March 7, 2026. (Atta Kenare / AFP via Getty Images)
The United States is not, so far as can be determined from afar, intentionally targeting schools, hospitals, and residential buildings in Tehran and other Iranian cities, no more than it can be conclusively determined from afar that Israel is intentionally targeting schools, hospitals, and residential buildings in Gaza. Rather, both claim that their adversaries—Hamas in Gaza, the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps and Basij militia in Iran—are either embedded in those civilian structures or situated close by. But the outcome, in both cases, is the same: attacks supposedly aimed at enemy combatants are resulting in massive damage to civilian infrastructure, with a huge toll in human life.
What ties the Iran war to Gaza—and to the current Israel campaign against remnants of Hezbollah in Beirut—is the fundamentally urban nature of the fighting along with the overwhelming use of airpower to combat highly dispersed paramilitary forces. This combination, as many previous wars attest—think Guernica, Hue, Falluja—inevitably results in the wanton destruction of civilian structures said by the attackers to house, or be located in the vicinity of, enemy militants. For those civilians unable to flee the bombing targets—which could be almost anywhere—the outcome is usually death, injury, or homelessness.
Israeli and American military officials consistently claim that the bombs being used in their attacks on urban targets in Gaza, Lebanon, and Iran are precision-guided munitions capable of striking their intended targets with a very high degree of accuracy, sparing nearby civilian structures. When Israel was charged with the indiscriminate bombing of residential structures in Gaza, the army’s chief spokesman, RADM Daniel Hagari, stated, “We choose the right munition for each target—so it doesn’t cause unnecessary damage.” When it became evident that the US bombed an elementary school in southern Iran, killing over 175 people (most of them children), US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth declared, “We, of course, never target civilian targets.”
Hagari and Hegseth may believe what they say: that Israel and the US do not “target civilian targets.” But they can never be certain that their intelligence on adversary locations is accurate to begin with or that aircraft traveling hundreds of miles per hour can deliver munitions with 100 percent accuracy, so they accept—as an unfortunate but necessary logic of war—the decimation of civilian neighborhoods.
The evidence of …
How is this acceptable?
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Current Issue
March 10, 2026
America’s Gaza
The bombing of Tehran.
Michael T. Klare
Share
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X (Twitter)
Bluesky Pocket
Ad Policy
US-Israeli joint bombings near Azadi Tower in Tehran, on March 7, 2026. (Atta Kenare / AFP via Getty Images)
The United States is not, so far as can be determined from afar, intentionally targeting schools, hospitals, and residential buildings in Tehran and other Iranian cities, no more than it can be conclusively determined from afar that Israel is intentionally targeting schools, hospitals, and residential buildings in Gaza. Rather, both claim that their adversaries—Hamas in Gaza, the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps and Basij militia in Iran—are either embedded in those civilian structures or situated close by. But the outcome, in both cases, is the same: attacks supposedly aimed at enemy combatants are resulting in massive damage to civilian infrastructure, with a huge toll in human life.
What ties the Iran war to Gaza—and to the current Israel campaign against remnants of Hezbollah in Beirut—is the fundamentally urban nature of the fighting along with the overwhelming use of airpower to combat highly dispersed paramilitary forces. This combination, as many previous wars attest—think Guernica, Hue, Falluja—inevitably results in the wanton destruction of civilian structures said by the attackers to house, or be located in the vicinity of, enemy militants. For those civilians unable to flee the bombing targets—which could be almost anywhere—the outcome is usually death, injury, or homelessness.
Israeli and American military officials consistently claim that the bombs being used in their attacks on urban targets in Gaza, Lebanon, and Iran are precision-guided munitions capable of striking their intended targets with a very high degree of accuracy, sparing nearby civilian structures. When Israel was charged with the indiscriminate bombing of residential structures in Gaza, the army’s chief spokesman, RADM Daniel Hagari, stated, “We choose the right munition for each target—so it doesn’t cause unnecessary damage.” When it became evident that the US bombed an elementary school in southern Iran, killing over 175 people (most of them children), US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth declared, “We, of course, never target civilian targets.”
Hagari and Hegseth may believe what they say: that Israel and the US do not “target civilian targets.” But they can never be certain that their intelligence on adversary locations is accurate to begin with or that aircraft traveling hundreds of miles per hour can deliver munitions with 100 percent accuracy, so they accept—as an unfortunate but necessary logic of war—the decimation of civilian neighborhoods.
The evidence of …
America’s Gaza
How is this acceptable?
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Current Issue
March 10, 2026
America’s Gaza
The bombing of Tehran.
Michael T. Klare
Share
Copy Link
Facebook
X (Twitter)
Bluesky Pocket
Email
Ad Policy
US-Israeli joint bombings near Azadi Tower in Tehran, on March 7, 2026. (Atta Kenare / AFP via Getty Images)
The United States is not, so far as can be determined from afar, intentionally targeting schools, hospitals, and residential buildings in Tehran and other Iranian cities, no more than it can be conclusively determined from afar that Israel is intentionally targeting schools, hospitals, and residential buildings in Gaza. Rather, both claim that their adversaries—Hamas in Gaza, the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps and Basij militia in Iran—are either embedded in those civilian structures or situated close by. But the outcome, in both cases, is the same: attacks supposedly aimed at enemy combatants are resulting in massive damage to civilian infrastructure, with a huge toll in human life.
What ties the Iran war to Gaza—and to the current Israel campaign against remnants of Hezbollah in Beirut—is the fundamentally urban nature of the fighting along with the overwhelming use of airpower to combat highly dispersed paramilitary forces. This combination, as many previous wars attest—think Guernica, Hue, Falluja—inevitably results in the wanton destruction of civilian structures said by the attackers to house, or be located in the vicinity of, enemy militants. For those civilians unable to flee the bombing targets—which could be almost anywhere—the outcome is usually death, injury, or homelessness.
Israeli and American military officials consistently claim that the bombs being used in their attacks on urban targets in Gaza, Lebanon, and Iran are precision-guided munitions capable of striking their intended targets with a very high degree of accuracy, sparing nearby civilian structures. When Israel was charged with the indiscriminate bombing of residential structures in Gaza, the army’s chief spokesman, RADM Daniel Hagari, stated, “We choose the right munition for each target—so it doesn’t cause unnecessary damage.” When it became evident that the US bombed an elementary school in southern Iran, killing over 175 people (most of them children), US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth declared, “We, of course, never target civilian targets.”
Hagari and Hegseth may believe what they say: that Israel and the US do not “target civilian targets.” But they can never be certain that their intelligence on adversary locations is accurate to begin with or that aircraft traveling hundreds of miles per hour can deliver munitions with 100 percent accuracy, so they accept—as an unfortunate but necessary logic of war—the decimation of civilian neighborhoods.
The evidence of …
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