By Sharon Zhang
This article was originally published by Truthout
The US has only ever dropped a MOAB once before — on Afghanistan in 2017.
The Pentagon has reportedly drawn up plans to attack Iran with the “Mother of All Bombs” (MOAB), the largest conventional weapon ever developed by weight, after being ordered by President Donald Trump to develop strike plans for targets that include “a lot of energy infrastructure.”
Energy infrastructure is largely considered to be civilian in nature and thus protected under international law.
The GBU-43/B Massive Ordnance Air Blast bomb, or MOAB, is the U.S.’s largest non-nuclear bomb. It is designed to explode a few feet before hitting the ground, creating a massive blast and shooting out plumes of fire, destroying everything within a 0.6 mile radius and causing damage within one mile. It is not an effective weapon against targets like Iran’s highly fortified nuclear infrastructure, experts said, because it does not penetrate deep below ground.
Legal experts have previously raised concerns about disproportionate harm to civilians in the U.S.’s use of 2,000-pound bombs on Iran. The MOAB, by contrast, weighs 21,000 pounds, and has a much larger blast radius.
The MOAB options were first reported by CNN and confirmed by CBS. The MOAB was first tested in 2003, as the George W. Bush administration developed its strategy of “shock and awe” in Iraq; as CNN notes, at the time, the Pentagon said it hoped that the mere existence of the MOAB was enough to cause “psychological” damage to the enemy.
The bomb has only been used once before in combat, by Trump. In 2017, the U.S. dropped a MOAB east of Kabul, in Nangarhar, Afghanistan, a province with a population of 1.5 million people. The Pentagon claimed that more than 94 ISIS members were killed in the attack. No civilian deaths were reported; some reports said that the area had long been evacuated. But some local reports suggested that civilians were harmed, and critics afterward noted that the U.S. had previously never considered using the bomb in Iraq because of civilian damage concerns. It caused a mushroom cloud visible from 20 miles away.
It is unclear what the timing of such an attack on Iran would be. Trump has said that he won’t relaunch strikes against Iran before the midterms, but reports have also said that his administration has drawn up plans to do just that. CNN said advisers privately wonder if Trump’s pledges are definitive.
CNN additionally found that the Trump administration and military planners have spent recent weeks looking for “an off-ramp that gives Trump a ‘symbolic’ win — at minimum — he can try to sell to the American people without preventing a potential diplomatic breakthrough, starting with an agreement to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.” This includes plans that could amount to strikes for a “fireworks show,” after which Trump would declare victory.
“The Trump administration’s threats to commit war crimes in Iran cannot be normalized,” said Ryan Costello, policy director for the National Iranian American Council, in response to the MOAB report. “President Trump acts on many of his threats, necessitating more urgent action to bring this illegal war of choice to a definitive end.”
The Trump administration has already been under fire for killing civilians in Iran, with several attacks having been described as war crimes by UN experts. This includes the February 28 strike on an elementary school in Minab, Iran, which killed 160 people, including 123 children.
Pentagon officials said in May that their report on the Minab attack, which is the single worst strike on civilians by the U.S. in the 21st century, was nearing conclusion. But Bloomberg reported on Thursday that the Pentagon is planning to withhold the report at least until after the midterm elections next month, and potentially even longer.
The attempt to withhold information about the U.S.’s conduct in the deeply unpopular war has incensed critics.
Defense Secretary Pete “Hegseth eliminated staff who prevent civilian casualties, called the rules of engagement safeguarding civilians ‘stupid,’ & now he’s covering up the report on the Minab school strike that killed over 120 children,” said Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Maryland). “He needs to be removed from office & we need accountability NOW.”
This article was originally published by Truthout and is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0). Please maintain all links and credits in accordance with our republishing guidelines.
