The recent U.S. Tomahawk missile strike in Iran, which reportedly killed 170 school children, has ignited a firestorm of outrage from anti-war critics. Former Clinton White House staffer Keith Boykin used the unintentional tragedy, under investigation by the Pentagon, to write off the three-week-old Iran war as “a disaster for the 170 school children” and “an unmitigated disaster for the world.”

Apart from the estimated 20,000 to 30,000 Iranian protesters killed early this year, consider Iran’s intentional history of using its children during the 1980-1988 Iran-Iraq War. To repel Saddam Hussein’s invasion, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini mobilized child soldiers — boys as young as 9 or 12 — from poor families to serve as human minesweepers. Children were promised martyrdom and given “keys to paradise” to wear around their necks. Iranian commanders sent waves of them, often tied them together with ropes to prevent retreat. They marched onto minefields and detonated explosives with their bodies, clearing paths for tanks and adult troops.

Estimates suggest as many as 500,000 children were used in this way, with tens of thousands blown to pieces or mowed down by Iraqi machine guns. Some sources suggest some 100,000 died to clear the field for tanks and soldiers. Survivors recount the horror — bound together, facing withering fire, their small bodies exploding on mines. Iran’s leaders glorified it as holy duty.

The depravity is staggering. Iran treats its own children like disposable tools, exploiting their poverty and brainwashing them with visions of post-death paradise.

What would Iran do with a nuclear bomb?

Imagine the mullahs, who chant “Death to America” and fund proxies like Hezbollah and Hamas, armed with nukes and missiles. They would not hesitate to threaten Israel, Saudi Arabia, Europe and America. Iran, since the state of this war, has launched strikes against over a dozen countries, including “neutral” gulf states.

Their proxy wars have already killed thousands. A nuclear Iran could kill millions. The regime’s history of terrorism — from the 1983 Beirut barracks bombing to plots against dissidents abroad — shows they’re not rational actors. Preventing that nightmare is why this war, however messy, is necessary. Appeasement, as with former President Barack Obama’s nuclear deal, only emboldened them.

Let’s not forget the civilian toll. During the Obama administration, drone strikes in places like Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia resulted in hundreds of civilian deaths, including children. The Bureau of Investigative Journalism estimate that between 300 and 800 civilians were killed in those covert operations (excluding active war zones like Syria and Afghanistan). The Obama administration itself acknowledged between 64 and 116 civilian deaths in non-battlefield strikes from 2009 to 2016, though critics argued the true number was far higher.

As with the Tomahawk strike on the Iranian school, the strikes conducted under Obama were not a deliberate targeting of innocents. Those civilian deaths resulted from intelligence errors in remote, hard-to-verify areas. Where was the outrage from the anti-Iran war critics when Obama ordered the attacks that killed civilians and children? Where was the outrage over Iran’s intentional mass killings of its own people, including the use of children and human detonators?

According to the 2013 book “Double Down: Game Change 2012,” Obama reportedly told senior aides, “Turns out I’m really good at killing people. Didn’t know that was going to be a strong suit of mine.” It’s the kind of off-the-cuff remark that, if made by President Donald Trump, would be yet another addition of the ever-increasing list of “why I hate Trump.”

Yes, mourn the 170 children. Every innocent life lost is a tragedy. But the fury should be directed to Tehran. That regime has been at war against America for 47 years, including attacks on U.S. bases; killing American soldiers with IEDs with Iran’s fingerprints on them; nuclear saber-rattling; and lethal regional aggression through its terror proxies. This is the real villain.

America fights with rules and restraint. We are civilized. We regret mistakes that cause civilian deaths and show genuine contrition. Iran fights with fanaticism. It uses its own kids as shields and mine detectors. Iran must be stopped. Standing against Iran’s evil protects innocents everywhere. This includes Iran’s own oppressed people, as well as Americans who hate Trump.

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