A US cruise missile hit a school in Iran and killed 123 children, and Washington is now trading blame internally while the UN calls it a war crime.

• The missile struck the target it was aimed at — the problem was that the target itself was wrong.
• The US government is blaming Palantir, saying its software flagged outdated information that marked the school as a target.
• Critics are pointing at Pete Hegseth instead, saying staff cuts removed the people who would have double-checked that targeting data.
• The UN has called the strike a war crime, which raises the stakes well beyond a software glitch.

Outlook: Expect the fight over who is at fault — the software vendor or the Pentagon's thinned-out review staff — to get louder as international pressure builds.