Methods of hitting specific, sometimes small, targets with bombs, rockets and artillery fire have improved dramatically during the past several years. But relying on “pinpoint bombing” or “surgical strikes” remains potentially risky, as a tragedy on recently made clear.

An airstrike by U.S. warplanes targeting Taliban fighters in Kunduz, Afghanistan, went awry. A bomb or bombs fell instead on a hospital run by the French Doctors Without Borders group. Twelve personnel and 10 patients were killed.

After some confusion involving Afghan and U.S. officials, the Pentagon said the hospital was hit as a result of a mistake. An investigation to determine precisely what went wrong will be conducted, the Defense Department added.

Doctors Without Borders – which does an enormous amount of humanitarian work in many countries – wants an independent probe. The organization’s officials accused the United States of committing a war crime by striking the hospital.

The group’s call for an outside investigation, however, cannot be honored. To do so would allow access to American personnel and information that cannot be granted without potential detriment to U.S. security.

Unfortunately, “collateral damage” occurs often in armed conflict, as innocent victims are hit by bullets, bombs, etc. intended for combatants. It is a special concern in urban fighting such as that in Kunduz.

There simply is no technology capable of preventing such tragedies.

Believing armed conflict can be conducted without them is, sadly, an unrealistic view of the hell that is war.