By Jeff Flake
Monday, March 16, 2026
It’s a lot to ask of President Trump for him to show a
little humility. But that’s exactly what the moment requires.
War is always tragic. When innocent civilians die, that
tragedy is multiplied. Even disciplined militaries can’t eliminate the fog of
war, faulty intelligence, or human error. Terrible mistakes happen. They have
in every war the United States has fought.
The recent bombing of a school in Iran appears to have
been carried out by U.S. forces. Tragic incidents like this are heartbreaking,
but they are not unprecedented. What is more troubling than the possibility of
error is the instinct to deny responsibility when the facts point clearly in
one direction.
President Trump has so far shown a reluctance to accept
blame for the strike. That response may feel politically convenient, but it
misunderstands something fundamental about leadership and American strength.
Great powers don’t strengthen their credibility by pretending obvious mistakes
never happened. Acknowledging mistakes in war does not project weakness. It
demonstrates confidence.
History provides many examples.
During the Vietnam War, U.S. soldiers killed hundreds of
civilians in the village of My Lai in 1968. Even before the massacre became
public, the United States investigated, prosecuted those responsible, and
confronted one of the most painful episodes of the war.
Even during international crises, American leaders have
acknowledged tragic mistakes. In 1988, during the Iran-Iraq War, the Navy
cruiser USS Vincennes mistakenly shot down an Iran Air passenger plane, Flight
655, over the Persian Gulf, killing 290 civilians. President Ronald Reagan expressed
deep regret, and the United States later compensated the victims’ families.
A decade later, during the NATO campaign in Kosovo, U.S.
aircraft mistakenly bombed the Chinese embassy in Belgrade after relying on
outdated intelligence about the building’s location—a failure that may resemble
the kind of targeting error that led to the strike on the Iranian school. Three
Chinese journalists were killed. President Bill Clinton publicly
apologized. After conducting an investigation, a delegation from the State
Department traveled to Beijing to explain
that the strike had been a tragic error caused by faulty intelligence.
Similar acknowledgments occurred in Afghanistan and Iraq
when U.S. operations mistakenly killed civilians, including the 2015 air strike
that destroyed a Doctors Without Borders hospital in Kunduz, Afghanistan. The
United States promptly investigated these incidents and accepted
responsibility.
None of those admissions weakened the United States.
Instead, they reinforced the truth that American power rests not only on
military strength but also on credibility and moral authority.
Character matters most when events go wrong. Anyone can
claim credit for success. The true test of leadership is how someone responds
to failure. A leader who refuses to acknowledge mistakes does not project
strength. He or she signals insecurity.
Our allies notice the difference. They trust nations
whose leaders level with them about hard truths. Our adversaries notice it as
well. Whether they admit it, they respect countries that hold themselves to
high standards. And the American people deserve honesty from those who send
their sons and daughters into harm’s way.
The U.S. military remains the most capable and
professional fighting force in the world. Precisely for that reason, when
something goes wrong, the United States should have the confidence to admit it.
So why did President Trump initially deny and deflect
when U.S. culpability appeared obvious? Is it worth the hit to our credibility
just to get through one more news cycle? In past experience, including some of
the examples above, initial denial and deflection damaged America’s reputation
and made the ultimate admission more painful.
Authoritarian regimes deny obvious facts and rewrite
reality to protect their leaders. Democracies are meant to serve more than one
man or a few egos. We investigate mistakes, learn from them, and, when
appropriate, try to make restitution.
What defines a nation is not whether such mistakes occur.
It’s whether its leader has the character to acknowledge them.
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