The targeting of a school in Iran – as it’s believed to have been – isn’t understood in the West for obvious reasons. We don’t enact clearances in the same way that military juntas do in the Middle East, who destroy schools as part of victory parades or in preparation for the removal of a rival leader.
In fact, schools are a battleground in the region. Many are setup each year to bolster the respect of a leader for charitable efforts. Although complaints are made that these are supposed to substitute for a real education, it’s said to have still become a fad amongst warring and tribal loyalists.
The annihilation of schoolchildren isn’t a stated part of the aims of the American superpower, and it definitely isn’t legal in its own domain.
Iranians are proud of their education and the loss is a bitterness because it seems so far removed from the actual trouble caused by their former Supreme Leader, who, while not known for indulging in school building for superficial reasons himself, didn’t dissuade from taking part in pettiness, either.
The result of military action is to see society pockmarked in often distressing ways, reminding us that the imperfect science of leadership has results that cannot be put alongside promises, slogans, or actual outcomes. We are held to a need to keep going, but the facts of the matter are hard to bear.