To the families in Minab who lost their children in the bombing of Shajarah Teyyebeh Elementary School, 

I remain anonymous because my spouse is in the U.S. Military and currently stationed in harm’s way. As a beneficiary of the U.S. Armed Forces and as an American, I am ashamed by the actions of my country’s military. I want to say I’m sorry, to offer my condolences, but any words I say probably sound cheap and insincere. The last thing you want to hear is the guilt of some American sleeping soundly at night, safe in their home so far away from these horrors. I can’t imagine what it is like—any of it. I don’t even have children to imagine losing, though my husband and I have been looking forward to starting a family when he returns. I am surrounded by mothers of small children, expectant mothers, exhausted mothers. Military families are big and they start early. The thought of the local elementary school or the middle school where I work being bombed to the ground and the majority of those within it killed is unfathomable. 

 I do not support this war, I do not support the killing of innocent people—it is never excusable. Whatever reasons have been given to justify this attack on your country are not my reasons. I am utterly sorry this has happened. Your anger is justified. Violence begets violence. If anyone thinks bombing Iran as we are doing in coordination with Israel will make it a more just and peaceful place for its citizens, they are so dangerously wrong. All I can hope is that it stops soon, that the American people rise up and put an end to it—not because it’s costing us a little more to drive our cars around, but because it should not be open to debate that a war that kills children in their classrooms is not a war we want any part of. 

With my deepest regrets, 

An American