EDITORIAL - The U.S. can’t afford to look worse

As per Iranian news reports, a U.S. missile strike killed four people, one of them a four-year-old boy, at a wedding in the Iranian city of Kuhestak a few days ago.

The U.S. military has denied the missile came from them, saying they never target civilians during operations.

"The U.S. military never targets civilians, unlike the IRGC," said Centcom spokesman Captain Tim Hawkins, referring to the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps.

However, Reuters, having obtained footage of the missile’s components, say all signs point to the weapon used in the incident as being made in the U.S., and not something the IRGC would have.

The BBC also said the explosion during the wedding came at the same time U.S. forces targeted a telecommunications tower around 100 meters from where the wedding was taking place.

Who’s telling the truth here? Multiple media sources present strong evidence indicating that this was a botched U.S. attack. American forces likely didn’t deliberately target the social gathering, but it became collateral damage after something went wrong when they attacked the tower.

The U.S. should avoid incidents that make their image look worse.

Whether they acknowledge it or not, the U.S. is already being seen as the unprovoked aggressor in this war after it attacked Iran without sufficient aggravation or good reason; kind of like what Russia is doing in Ukraine.

Not only that; it invited other countries to join in a war no one wanted or needed, a war that’s currently causing problems for the rest of the world.

Don’t get us wrong; this isn’t to defend Iran or the IRGC. It’s not exactly the most benevolent of regimes and has faults of its own that warrant its end.

But it should be said that civilians shouldn’t be targeted in any war, and that the U.S. cannot afford to look even worse by messing up and killing civilians, especially during a joyous occasion such as a wedding.

It also cannot afford incidents that have the tendency to polarize public opinion against them, not to mention prolong this war that no one wants or needs.