{"id":48335,"date":"2026-05-20T13:44:29","date_gmt":"2026-05-20T20:44:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=48335"},"modified":"2026-05-20T13:44:29","modified_gmt":"2026-05-20T20:44:29","slug":"citing-callous-disregard-of-hegseth-top-house-dem-does-not-trust-pentagon-answers-on-iran-school-massacre","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2026\/05\/20\/citing-callous-disregard-of-hegseth-top-house-dem-does-not-trust-pentagon-answers-on-iran-school-massacre\/","title":{"rendered":"Citing \u2018Callous Disregard\u2019 of Hegseth, Top House Dem Does Not \u2018Trust\u2019 Pentagon Answers on Iran School Massacre"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/media-library\/pete-hegseth-and-dan-caine-appear-for-house-budget-request-meeting.jpg?id=66702429&amp;width=1200&amp;height=400&amp;quality=70&amp;coordinates=0%2C31%2C0%2C659\" alt=\"Pete Hegseth And Dan Caine Appear For House Budget Request Meeting\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth testifies before the House Armed Services Committee in the Rayburn House Office Building on April 29, 2026 in Washington, DC.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u00a0(Photo by Kevin Dietsch\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">\u201cEighty days on, we have not taken responsibility for that attack,\u201d said Rep. Adam Smith, ranking member of the House Armed Services Committee.<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/author\/brad-reed\">Brad Reed<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>May 19, 2026 (CommonDreams.org)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The top Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee delivered a scathing rebuke to US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth\u2019s leadership on Tuesday while asking questions about a February&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/tag\/us-military\">US military<\/a>&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/news\/iranians-describe-school-massacre\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">strike<\/a>&nbsp;on an Iranian primary school in the city of Minab.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Rep. Adam Smith (D-Wash.), the ranking member of the mommittee, confronted Adm. Brad Cooper about the fact that the US still hasn\u2019t taken responsibility for the attack on the school, which killed more than 100&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/tag\/children\">children<\/a>, even though \u201cit\u2019s really pretty clear what happened there.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>RECOMMENDED&#8230;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/news\/pete-hegseth-senate-hearing\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/media-library\/defense-secretary-hegseth-testifies-before-senate-armed-services-committee.jpg?id=66661896&amp;width=1200&amp;height=1200&amp;quality=70&amp;coordinates=333%2C0%2C334%2C0\" alt=\"Defense Secretary Hegseth Testifies Before Senate Armed Services Committee\"\/><\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/news\/pete-hegseth-senate-hearing\">\u2018War Criminal\u2019 Pete Hegseth Hammered on True Costs of Iran Debacle During Senate Hearing<\/a><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/news\/iran-civilian-casualties\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/media-library\/mourning-iranian-women-hold-a-photo-of-a-girl-killed-in-the-us-strike-on-a-school-in-minab.jpg?id=65162753&amp;width=1200&amp;height=1200&amp;quality=70&amp;coordinates=833%2C0%2C834%2C0\" alt=\"Mourning Iranian women hold a photo of a girl killed in the US strike on a school in Minab\"\/><\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/news\/iran-civilian-casualties\">\u2018Have You Investigated Those Claims\u2019 of Civilians Killed by US in Iran? CENTCOM Chief: \u2018We Have Not\u2019<\/a><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cEighty days on, we have not taken responsibility for that attack,\u201d Smith said. \u201cThe endless stalling\u2014&#8217;It\u2019s being investigated, it\u2019s being investigated, it\u2019s being investigated.\u2019 In the past, when we\u2019ve had these type of mistakes, they\u2019ve been quickly acknowledged, even if a further investigation is necessary to figure out prevention methods. So can you, at this moment, acknowledge that that mistake was made?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Cooper responded by emphasizing that the US \u201cdoes not deliberately target civilians,\u201d while stating that the Iranian people are not \u201cour enemy.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">The first day of the Iran war saw the devastating bombing of an elementary school in Minab, killing 156 including 120 young children. The U.S. has not taken responsibility, even though an ongoing investigation implicated the U.S. months ago. This horrific crime cannot be swept\u2026 <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/OVEyNmNTzb\">pic.twitter.com\/OVEyNmNTzb<\/a><\/p>&mdash; NIAC (@NIACouncil) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/NIACouncil\/status\/2056772854897610774?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">May 19, 2026<\/a><\/blockquote><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Smith was not satisfied with this, however, and pressed Cooper to answer whether the US takes responsibility for the attack on the school.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThe investigation is ongoing,\u201d Cooper said. \u201cAs soon as it\u2019s complete, I\u2019m happy to&#8230;\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cSo that\u2019s a no,\u201d Smith interjected. \u201cWe will not take responsibility for something we very obviously did.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s a complex investigation,\u201d Cooper replied. \u201cThe school itself is located on an active [Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps] cruise missile base. It\u2019s more complex than the average strike. As soon as we\u2019re complete, I\u2019m fully committed to transparency.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Smith did not buy this explanation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI have an enormous amount of respect for you and an enormous amount of respect for the&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/tag\/pentagon\">Pentagon<\/a>,\u201d said Smith. \u201cI do not trust that answer. What we\u2019ve seen from this secretary of defense and his callous disregard for any sort of rules of engagement or protecting of civilian life, they make us suspicious.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Smith\u2019s grilling of Cooper earned praise from the National Iranian American Council (NIAC), which said the bombing of the school \u201ccannot be swept under the rug\u201d by Hegseth and the Pentagon brass.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Hegseth during his tenure leading the US Department of Defense has repeatedly&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/news\/hegseth-rules-of-engagement\">attacked<\/a>&nbsp;rule of engagement as \u201cstupid,\u201d while also authorizing a series of military strikes on purported drug-smuggling boats in international waters that many legal experts&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/news\/hrw-condemns-boat-strikes\">consider<\/a>&nbsp;acts of murder.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>During President Donald Trump\u2019s first term, when Hegseth was a Fox News host, he successfully\u00a0<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/news\/trump-pete-hegseth\" target=\"_blank\">lobbied<\/a>\u00a0the president to pardon members of the US armed forces accused or convicted of killing civilians in Iraq and Afghanistan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/author\/brad-reed\">Brad Reed<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Brad Reed is a staff writer for Common Dreams.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/author\/brad-reed\">Full Bio &gt;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth testifies before the House Armed Services Committee in the Rayburn House Office Building on April 29, 2026 in Washington, DC. \u00a0(Photo by Kevin Dietsch\/Getty Images) \u201cEighty days on, we have not taken responsibility for that attack,\u201d said Rep. Adam Smith, ranking member of the&#8230; <a class=\"continue-reading-link\" href=\"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2026\/05\/20\/citing-callous-disregard-of-hegseth-top-house-dem-does-not-trust-pentagon-answers-on-iran-school-massacre\/\"> Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr; <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1908,1907],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48335"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48335"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48335\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":48336,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48335\/revisions\/48336"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48335"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48335"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48335"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}