Pete Hegseth, America's secretary of war, has reduced the Pentagon's civilian-harm assessment personnel by 90%, according to an official familiar with the cuts - a decision that has coincided with a mounting civilian death toll in Iran and at least one confirmed targeting catastrophe.

As "Hvylya" reports, citing an investigation by The Economist, the civilian-harm team embedded within CENTCOM now operates at one-third of its pre-Hegseth staffing levels, with the heaviest losses among planners and personnel inside strike cells - the very people responsible for flagging when conditions on the ground have changed enough to render a target dangerous.

The consequences have already surfaced. On February 28, 175 people - most of them children - were killed when a girls' school in Minab, southern Iran, was struck by what was likely an American Tomahawk cruise missile. The New York Times reported on March 11 that the Pentagon determined the strike resulted from a targeting mistake, as part of an attack on a nearby naval base. An official said the school site had previously been part of the base.

Hegseth has made no effort to conceal his priorities. He has repeatedly emphasized "lethality" over what he has dismissed as "tepid legality," fired military lawyers and loosened rules of engagement. According to HRANA, a Washington-based human-rights monitor, almost 1,800 people have been killed in Iran so far, most of them civilians. The approach fits a broader pattern of what analysts have described as America's emerging war doctrine under the current administration.

"The more we do on the planning side, the less we have to worry about Minabs," one official said. On March 8, CENTCOM told Iranians to stay home to avoid being killed, accusing Iran's leaders of deploying weapons in built-up areas and saying the regime "blatantly disregards the safety of innocent people." Experts warn the campaign's sustainability is already in question, making oversight cuts all the more consequential.

Also read: Ferguson and Haass on Iran: A War That Must End in Weeks - or Become a Catastrophe.