A tragedy struck my family on December 16, 1947. I was ten years old, and my little sister, Jean, was six. She was returning from a visit with our grandparents who lived across the highway from us. Jean did not see one truck following closely behind another. She darted into the road and was killed instantly by that second truck. I was the first to see her mangled body. We cannot forget something like that.
One of my chores was to set the table for our evening meals. About a month after Jean’s funeral, I put the plates and silverware on the table. When we sat down to eat, everyone was quiet, as people tend to be during a period of mourning loved ones. Then all of us suddenly realized that I had unconsciously set a plate and silverware for Jean, and we all burst out crying. That place setting and empty chair are images I will never erase from my memory.
In a surprise attack on the morning of February 28, 2026, a U.S. Tomahawk cruise missile made a precision strike on the Shajareh Tayyebeh Elementary School in Minab, Hormozgan Province, Iran. The correct number of children killed is still not known by U.S. news agencies, but estimates are that about 160 children died. The number is difficult to determine because of the massive destruction. Long after the attack, searchers were still retrieving body parts from the rubble. A shoe and a bloody piece of clothing were the only things left of one child (www. newsweek.com/who-bombed-theiranian- school-11637112).
And now, all those heartbroken parents see empty places and weep the same as my family did seventynine years ago. Can we understand their grief ?
How could the tragedy of destroying that school occur? Some background information can help us understand the current situation with Iran.
After lengthy discussions by U.S. negotiators during the Obama administration, an agreement with Iran was completed. The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, (JCPOA) signed on July 14, 2015, by the U.S., Iran, U.K., France, Russia, and China specified that Iran would not produce nuclear weapons, and neither would they attempt to obtain them from any other country. Iran also agreed to permit nuclear experts’ free access to inspect sites in Iran without giving prior warning (armscontrol.org/factsheets/ joint-comprehensive-plan-action- jcpoa-glance).
The U.S. did not “give” Iran a large sum of money. The money sent to Iran was theirs and had been held by us after our U. S. embassy hostages were taken in February 1979. It was returned as part of the JCPOA agreement.
In March of 2025, Director of Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard testified before Congress that Iran had no nuclear weapons. President Trump said, “I don’t care. I believe they do.” He canceled the JCPOA agreement (apnews. com/article/gabbard-trumpintelligence- iran-nuclearprog ram-51c8d85d536f-8628870c110ac05bb518).
Terminating that effective agreement is one of the major reasons we are now at war. The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported that up to 3,375 Iranian civilians have been killed as of May 31, 2026. Eighteen American soldiers are dead. The latest report indicated the number of U.S. wounded soldiers is more than six hundred.
Former Ambassador to the United Nations Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr., said, “The fact that the talk may be boring or turgid or uninspiring should not cause us to forget the fact that it is preferable to war.”
In my view, President Donald Trump and his Secretary of “War” Pete Hegseth rushed to bomb Iran. They did not consider the wisdom of Lodge’s statement. They were too impatient for continued negotiations.
When will it end? Historians and military experts say we are getting into another Vietnam or Afghanistan type of war. The rationale keeps changing from “regime change” to “preventing them from getting nuclear weapons” (npr.org/2026/03/25/ nx-s1-5759721/how-trumpsiran- war-objectives-haveshifted- over-time).
We can only be certain there are more quiet rooms and empty places at meals that will be sources of grief for families the rest of their lives.
“It’s a sunny Sunday afternoon And my country is bombing children.
A mother screams through rubble While here church bells echo over the hills.
Oh God Oh God Oh God” —Hagly De Roche—