Was a War Crime Committed in Kunduz?

Did the United States military do its best? At least thirty people died in the attack: at least ten patients, thirteen staff members, and seven whose bodies were so burned or mutilated that they can’t be identified. Other people are still missing. After a few days of obfuscation and apologies, the U.S. military indicated that Afghan forces had asked for a strike on the site. (At the time, I wrote about at least five unanswered questions occasioned by the military’s statements; rather than being answered, they have become more urgent.) President Obama has apologized for the deaths and promised that the military’s own investigation will be thorough. The M.S.F. report correctly notes that it cannot know what happened in the military chain of command—what it has, it says, is “the view from the hospital”—but it is also right in saying that an independent investigation is necessary.