Every Time Someone Tries to Win a War Before It Starts, Innocent People Die

[DISCLAIMER]

*Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015) spoilers contained herein.

Screenshot from Avengers: Age of Ultron, property of Marvel Studios and Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures, fair use

In Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015), Steve Rogers and Tony Stark discuss the latter’s mistake that results in artificial intelligence (AI) supervillain Ultron coming into existence. The former states, “Every time someone tries to win a war before it starts, innocent people die. Every time!”

Thinking of how AI in the film ostensibly wages war on humanity, I contemplate the 2026 Iran war (euphemistically referred to as hostilities, conflict, an operation, etc.) between the United States (U.S.) and Israel on one side and Iran on the other side. For context, one source reports:

On the first morning of Operation Epic Fury, 28 February 2026, American forces struck the Shajareh Tayyebeh primary school in Minab, in southern Iran, hitting the building at least two times during the morning session. American forces killed between 175 and 180 people, most of them girls between the ages of seven and 12.

Within days, the question that organised the coverage was whether Claude, a chatbot made by Anthropic, had selected the school as a target. [… ] A chatbot did not kill those children. People failed to update a database, and other people built a system fast enough to make that failure lethal.

Regarding the aforementioned bombing of noncombatants, Amnesty International stated, “This harrowing attack on a school, with classrooms full of children, is a sickening illustration of the catastrophic and entirely predictable price civilians are paying during this armed conflict.”

I addressed my perspective on the killing of civilians regarding this incident in Trolley Problem: Distress or Disturbance. As well, I’ve been watching the reactions of others, as to determine whether or not people are paying attention to use of AI by the military. According to one source:

“Was artificial intelligence, including the use of the Maven Smart System, used to identify the Shajareh Tayyebeh school as a target?” more than 120 House Democrats asked in a March 12 letter to the Pentagon, just days after 46 Senate Democrats sent a similar request demanding clarity on the deadly hit.

The Maven Smart System, a targeting and intelligence platform built by data analytics company Palantir Technologies under a $1.3 billion Pentagon contract, was built to solve a problem that has grown exponentially in recent years: information overload — with artificial intelligence as its secret weapon.

Maven fuses satellite imagery, drone feeds, radar data and signals intelligence into a single interface, then classifies targets, recommends weapons systems and generates strike packages in near real time, compressing kill-chain reasoning and decision making into the fastest timelines ever seen on the battlefield.

And it uses Anthropic’s Claude AI model, embedded in its system, to semi-autonomously rank targets by strategic importance, drafting automated legal justifications for each strike along the way.

The software generated hundreds of strike coordinates in the first 24 hours of the Iran campaign, enabling the U.S. to hit more than 1,000 targets in the first 24 hours of the war.

I argue that targeting civilians is a war crime. Namely, it’s terrorism (the use of violence against non-combatants to achieve political or ideological aims). Also, I previously addressed the topic of AI targeting humans in Lavender-Colored Discrimination, as I noted that one source reported:

As part of the Gaza war, the Israel Defense Force (IDF) has used artificial intelligence [AI] to rapidly and automatically perform much of the process of determining what to bomb. Israel has greatly expanded the bombing of the Gaza Strip, which in previous wars had been limited by the Israeli Air Force running out of targets.

These tools include the Gospel, an AI which automatically reviews surveillance data looking for buildings, equipment and people thought to belong to the enemy, and upon finding them, recommends bombing targets to a human analyst who may then decide whether to pass it along to the field. Another is Lavender, an “AI-powered database” which lists tens of thousands of Palestinian men linked by AI to Hamas or Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and which is also used for target recommendation.

Critics have argued the use of these AI tools puts civilians at risk, blurs accountability, and results in militarily disproportionate violence in violation of international humanitarian law.

It’s as though the U.S. and Israel are diffusing responsibility and accountability for the deaths of human lives, especially noncombatants, by seemingly claiming that machines – not fallible human beings – are at fault. I imagine that this excuse won’t hold up to scrutiny for long.

It’s not implausible to consider that at some point in the future people, not AI, will be held to account for the war crimes which AI has been used to commit. Now, I invite you to consider U.S. President Donald Trump’s expressed reason for starting the Iran war in the first place:

Asked whether Israel had pushed him into launching military action, Trump told reporters: “No. I might have forced their hand. We were having negotiations with these lunatics, and it was my opinion that they were going to attack first. They were going to attack. If we didn’t do it, they were going to attack first. I felt strongly about that.”

Misusing feelings-based jargon to suggest that he irrationally believed Iran was “going to attack first,” Trump admitted to initiating hostile action against a sovereign nation. Per Steve Rogers, “Every time someone tries to win a war before it starts, innocent people die. Every time!”

Too bad this isn’t a Hollywood film, as the Iran war is real life. As things currently stand, from my outlook, the U.S. and Israel aren’t prevailing in this terroristic campaign. Apparently, Trump will address the world this evening and describe or prescribe his next course of action.

Unfortunately, release of an axiomatic Ultron has already proven effective at targeting and killing humans, as I doubt the U.S. and Israel will simply put away their AI killing machines once this war is over. As such, I use Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT) in this regard.

Specifically, REBT uses unconditional acceptance (UA) to relieve self-induced suffering. This is accomplished through use of unconditional self-acceptance (USA), unconditional other-acceptance (UOA), and unconditional life-acceptance (ULA).

With my approach to REBT, I incorporate author Stephen Covey’s concepts regarding the circles of control, influence, and concern, as well as an area of no concern. UA maps onto the circle of control (USA), circle of influence (UOA), and circle of concern and area of no concern (ULA).

The circle of control encompasses only oneself, the circle of influence encapsulates elements which may be subject to one’s sway, the circle of concern engrosses most matters one can imagine, and the area of no concern relates to all content which isn’t yet imagined.

The AI supervillain character Ultron doesn’t actually exist. Arguably, a mythological AI-powered robot from graphic novels could fall into my area of no concern, even though it’s imaginable. Still, AI that targets and kills humans does actually exist, though not named Ultron.

Thus, such machines (i.e., Claude, Lavender, etc.) fall into my circle of concern. This is because I have no control or influence over such matters. Similarly, I’m not likely to influence the people who create or operate AI, as they otherwise would’ve been in my circle of influence.

This leaves only one circle worthy of my attention: my circle of control. What do I have control over when those who try to win terrorist wars before conflict starts, as innocent people die in correlation with AI operations? I can control only my reaction to such events!

The same is true for you, as well. That is, unless you’re an AI creator or operator. In that case, what in the actual fuck are you doing!? Ultron is the villain in Avengers: Age of Ultron! Alas, I’m healthily distressed by my rational beliefs about this topic, not unhealthily disturbed.

In particular, I’m healthily annoyed by my beliefs about U.S. tax dollars funding AI-assisted murder and terrorism. Yet, I’m not unhealthily enraged. If you’d like to know more about how to achieve similar outcomes through use of REBT, then I look forward to hearing from you.

If you’re looking for a provider who tries to work to help understand how thinking impacts physical, mental, emotional, and behavioral elements of your life—helping you to sharpen your critical thinking skills, I invite you to reach out today by using the contact widget on my website.

As a psychotherapist, I’m pleased to try to help people with an assortment of issues ranging from anger (hostility, rage, and aggression) to relational issues, adjustment matters, trauma experience, justice involvement, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, anxiety and depression, and other mood or personality-related matters.

At Hollings Therapy, LLC, serving all of Texas, I aim to treat clients with dignity and respect while offering a multi-lensed approach to the practice of psychotherapy and life coaching. My mission includes: Prioritizing the cognitive and emotive needs of clients, an overall reduction in client suffering, and supporting sustainable growth for the clients I serve. Rather than simply trying to help you to feel better, I want to try to help you get better!

Deric Hollings, LPC, LCSW

References:

Amnesty International (2026, March 16). USA/Iran: Those responsible for deadly and unlawful US strike on school that killed over 100 children must be held accountable. Retrieved from https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2026/03/usa-iran-those-responsible-for-deadly-and-unlawful-us-strike-on-school-that-killed-over-100-children-must-be-held-accountable/

Baker, K. T. (2026, March 26). AI got the blame for the Iran school bombing. The truth is far more worrying. The Guardian. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/news/2026/mar/26/ai-got-the-blame-for-the-iran-school-bombing-the-truth-is-far-more-worrying

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