Gaslighting Over Atrocities

The Trump White House’s deflections and false claims around a massacre of children cannot be allowed to stand.

At the onset of the war with Iran, a bomb struck a girls’ school in the southern part of Iran. Estimates put the number of dead at around 175, mostly children.

Misinformation, pushed in part by Israel, flooded the internet, including a debunked claim that a failed Iranian interceptor had destroyed the school.

But videos of nearby strikes captured in real time—and an apparent follow-on strike on the same building after frantic parents had rushed to find their children—quickly undercut this claim.

The Trump regime is seeking to deflect blame and avoid responsibility for the largest civilian massacre by the U.S. military since the My Lai massacre in Vietnam. It’s vitally important to understand what has actually happened and how the White House is now seeking to shift the narrative and evade accountability.

Independent media investigations confirm a U.S. strike

On February 28, a precision airstrike destroyed the Shajarah Tayyebeh elementary school in Minab in southern Iran, not far from the Strait of Hormuz. The attack occurred during the day on a Saturday, the start of the Iranian school week, meaning students and teachers were in class.

A New York Times investigation, published on March 5, examined evidence of the strike and concluded the following:

• The school was struck simultaneously with an adjacent naval base of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps;

• U.S. forces were conducting strikes along southern Iran that day, and a map presented by Gen. Dan Caine included the Minab area;

• Israeli forces were operating predominantly in northern Iran, not the south; and

• The USS Abraham Lincoln strike group was explicitly described as “attriting naval capability all along the strait”

Satellite imagery, along with expert military analysis, showed that at least six Revolutionary Guards buildings were hit along with the school in what the Times’ military expert described as “picture perfect” precision strikes. Such strikes were inconsistent with the theory of a misfired Iranian missile.

The building was originally part of an Iranian naval base, but around 10 years ago it was partitioned with sports fields and recreational areas added over time. Such areas are clear hallmarks of a civilian school, and experts told the Times that U.S. intelligence should have been able to identify the building as such based on these open areas.

Even assuming this was a case of “target misidentification,” legal accountability could still lie ahead. One expert noted that the strike could constitute a violation of international law if proper verification of the target’s civilian status was not conducted.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

On March 6, CNN separately confirmed that it likely was a U.S. missile that struck the school. The network’s analysis aligned with that of the Times: The target was a nearby naval base, Israel was not operating in the area, and munitions experts assessed that the damage to buildings was from precision-guided missiles, not misfired weaponry.

Deflecting blame

Despite these independent investigations assigning responsibility for the massacre to the U.S., Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt went on the attack. Rather than treat the matter with the seriousness that it deserves, she sought to deflect blame by insisting that the U.S. does not target civilians while “the rogue Iranian regime” does.

Her talking points appeared consistent with how others, including her boss, would later handle the matter. While aboard Air Force One, President Trump was asked about the destruction of the school. He claimed, “Based upon what I’ve seen, that was done by Iran.”

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth was then asked separately if that was true, and he exhibited a rare moment of non-alignment: “We’re certainly investigating,” Hegseth said, before echoing Leavitt’s messaging: “But the only side that targets civilians is Iran.”

Trump then doubled down on his claim. “We think it was done by Iran,” Trump insisted, before elaborating, without irony, “Because they’re very inaccurate, as you know, with their munitions. They have no accuracy whatsoever. It was done by Iran.”

Like Leavitt, Trump made that false statement on March 7, days after both the New York Times and CNN investigations had already reached the opposite conclusion.

There are real-time video receipts

Video evidence released two days ago by investigative outlet Bellingcat revealed the exact moment before a Tomahawk missile slammed into a nearby building. This confirmed that U.S. forces had conducted the attack, as they are the only party operating in the region that possesses and uses Tomahawk missiles.

Faced with this new evidence, Trump pivoted. He claimed yesterday, without any evidence, that Iran actually possesses “generic” Tomahawk missiles and somehow bombed its own school— apparently twice.

This is nonsense. The only countries that possess Tomahawk missiles are U.S. allies, including the U.K., Australia, Japan and the Netherlands. Further, it’s not just about possessing the missiles themselves. Tomahawk missiles require sophisticated launching systems in order to operate. They are not “generic” missiles that can be bought and sold on the world market and can be fired from wherever.

Setting the record straight, demanding justice and accountability

The question of who is responsible for the killing of so many Iranian children matters a great deal. As political commentator Niall Stanage noted,

• This matters strategically, with the United States claiming its enemy is the Iranian regime and not its people;

• It matters morally, because the United States should not be bombing schools; and

• It matters ethically and legally, because people need to be held to account regardless of whether their actions were unintentional or intentional.

Lest we forget, this is the same White House that gaslit us on its Venezuelan “double tap” war crimes and then twice on the murders of Alexi Pretti and Renee Good. In each case, the White House made initial outrageous claims in an attempt to shift the narrative, only to be caught in its lies by video evidence and by careful investigations by the media of the actual facts.

The idea that Iran bombed its own school, and that the U.S. is somehow not responsible, is gaslighting on an international scale. The White House is seeking to avoid responsibility and accountability for the deaths of scores of children by misleading the public about what actually took place.

We can’t let that happen. And we cannot normalize this kind of atrocity at the hands of our own military.

The parents and families of those slain children deserve the truth and full justice. And we as a nation deserve a government that will tell us that truth, however hard it is, and not lead us further into needless, avoidable bloodshed.

Photo of mourners courtesy of The Guardian

If our current government cannot and will not grant us that, then we must do all we can to remove it from power. Indeed, that is our solemn responsibility to the rest of the world, which has been plunged into this war against its will and must now suffer the terrible consequences of our own grave electoral folly.