| Translate This News In |
|---|
Following a series of wrongful fatalities, US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin directed Pentagon officials to implement measures aimed at reducing the number of civilians killed in military operations.
Austin wrote to Pentagon leaders in an order that “the protection of civilians is fundamentally consistent with the effective, efficient, and decisive use of force in pursuit of US national objectives.”
“It’s a strategic as well as a moral obligation,” he said.
Austin allowed Pentagon officials 90 days to come up with a plan for reducing and avoiding civilian casualties in combat operations, claiming that the lessons learned and civilian suffering mitigated in an institutional sense in Afghanistan and Iraq.
The decision was made after a series of incidents, the most recent of which was the erroneous killing of ten people, including seven children, in a Kabul drone strike in August 2021, during the final days of the US presence in Afghanistan.
Similarly, The New York Times reported on a poorly planned bombing in March 2019 that killed 70 civilians in the final days of the campaign against the Islamic State group, embarrassment for the US military.
According to the New York Times, the military evaded scrutiny and accountability in the incident.
Austin’s directive came after the Pentagon commissioned RAND Corp to conduct a study of civilian death causes and reporting, which created a negative picture of the US military’s response to such instances.
According to the report, the military focuses so intently on the adversary while preparing strikes that it overlooks the broader civilian picture, which can result in preventable losses.
It also claims that the military does not appropriately and consistently investigate and record civilian deaths, and that it lacks a central database that might be used to conduct research and find answers.
Michael McNerney, one of the Rand report’s authors, claimed such investigations “rarely happen.”
He also described incident data management as a “hot mess.”
The Pentagon should create a “centre of excellence” with full-time people dedicated to civilian harm issues, as well as improve data collecting and analysis, according to Rand.
Rand also demanded a study of how the Pentagon provides “ex gratia” compensation to the families of non-combatants killed in US attacks.
Payments for civilian deaths have been utilised often in Afghanistan but infrequently in Iraq, according to McNerney, with some field commanders offering them and others not.
The Pentagon, he argues, should “explain the purpose of these payments more explicitly.”
“Are they just useful to assist US ground forces and back a commander on the ground, as some in Afghanistan did?” he inquired.
“Or, because it’s the proper thing to do, should the US utilise these payments as an admission of harm and an accountability tool?”
