---
type: source
title: "In the U.S. Strike on an Iranian School, What a Serious Military Investigation Should Look Like"
author: "Just Security"
url: https://www.justsecurity.org/134898/iran-school-strike-us-investigation/
date: 2026-03-01
domain: grand-strategy
secondary_domains: []
format: article
status: unprocessed
priority: medium
tags: [minab-school-strike, military-investigation, accountability, ihl, precautionary-measures, investigation-standards]
---

## Content

Just Security article describing the standards a credible military investigation of the Minab school strike should meet under IHL.

The article outlines what a serious investigation would examine:
1. Whether the DIA database entry reflected a genuine military objective at the time of the strike
2. Whether planners had access to information indicating civilian use of the building
3. Whether the precautionary measures required by Article 57 Additional Protocol I were actually taken
4. Who in the chain of command approved the target without verification
5. Whether the operational tempo (1,000+ targets/day) made meaningful precautionary review feasible

The article implicitly argues the Pentagon's announced "investigation" is unlikely to meet these standards because: (1) the investigation is conducted by the institution responsible; (2) the operational context (active conflict) creates incentives to minimize accountability findings; (3) no independent oversight mechanism exists.

**The investigation standard gap:** Just Security's framework for a "serious investigation" involves external verification, transparent findings, and prosecution where findings warrant. The Pentagon announced an "internal investigation." These are structurally different processes with different accountability outputs.

## Agent Notes

**Why this matters:** The "serious investigation" standard article makes the form-substance distinction explicit for military investigations — the same form-substance pattern appears at the investigation level, not just the governance/legislation level.

**What surprised me:** That Just Security published specific criteria rather than just demanding accountability. This is unusual — specific standards can be used to evaluate whether the actual investigation met the standard. It turns the accountability demand into something falsifiable.

**What I expected but didn't find:** Any indication that the Pentagon investigation would meet any of Just Security's five criteria. None of the available reporting suggests external verification or prosecution findings.

**KB connections:** Pairs with the Just Security legal analysis (targeting law) and HRW accountability demands. Forms a three-part Just Security sequence: legal violation analysis → investigation standard → accountability vacuum confirmation.

**Extraction hints:** The specific claim: "Military investigations of AI-assisted targeting errors face a structural accountability gap because the investigating institution is the responsible institution, creating incentives to attribute fault to system complexity (nobody responsible) rather than individual actors (prosecution possible)."

## Curator Notes (structured handoff for extractor)

PRIMARY CONNECTION: accountability vacuum pattern — investigation layer

WHY ARCHIVED: Provides the specific criteria for distinguishing serious from performative investigations — useful for evaluating whether the actual Pentagon investigation produced governance substance

EXTRACTION HINT: The claim is about the investigation structure, not the investigation findings — "internal investigations of AI-assisted targeting errors cannot produce individual accountability because the institution responsible for the error controls the investigation"
