Trump Says We’ll Never Know Truth of Iran Girls’ School Strike (We Do)
Robert McCoy The New Republic
Photo shared by Iranian media purporting to show missile debris from the strike on the Shahjareh Tayyebeh School in Minab, Iran, on Feb. 28. (photo: I.R. Iran Broadcasting) Trump Says We’ll Never Know Truth of Iran Girls’ School Strike (We Do)
Robert McCoy The New RepublicThe official investigation into that incident remains under wraps. Democratic senators have urged its release, while the Pentagon has stated that an investigation remains ongoing. Officially, the United States has refused to accept responsibility for its attack. But according to various media reports, American officials and investigators behind the scenes have acknowledged U.S. forces’ culpability.
In a Fox News interview aired Tuesday, the president was asked whether the investigation’s findings would be released. Trump did not answer the question, inspiring little confidence that they will ever see the light of day.
Instead, he did his best to avoid accountability and paint the clear-cut atrocity in shades of gray.
“I don’t think anybody’s gonna ever be able to say what happened there,” the president said. “Because if they don’t know by now, and as of a couple of weeks ago they didn’t know, and while things like that happen in war, there were missiles flying all over the place. And I don’t know how anybody could say that we shot it.”
Trump’s previous statements have, similarly, cast doubt on the prospect of accountability for the Minab school attack. Asked about the attack last month, Trump said, “We’re talking about a long time ago. Nobody did that on purpose.… Mistakes are made. War is nasty.” He then punted the issue of a published report on the incident to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.