By ALEXANDER WARD and LARA SELIGMAN
08/25/2022
The Defense Department just released its much-anticipated plan to reduce civilian casualties during military operations and more accurately report incidents if they happen. | Mark Wilson/Getty Images
With help from Connor O'Brien
The Defense Department just released its much-anticipated plan to reduce civilian casualties during military operations and more accurately report incidents if they happen — nearly a year after a botched drone strike killed 10 people, including seven children, in Kabul.
The idea is to bake in expertise on reducing civilian harm to operations from the very beginning of mission planning, said a senior defense official, speaking to reporters ahead of the plan’s release.
“We would envision having somebody or probably a group of people who are experts in the civilian environment that are sitting next to the operators, the threat-focused intel folks, the lawyers as they are really developing whether it’s an individual operation or a campaign, and building in this component of civilian harm throughout the overall process,” the official said.
But there are also a lot of questions left unanswered, for instance, the timeline for implementing the changes, how many people will be needed, and the rank of those experts sitting next to the military planners.
According to a memo signed by Defense Secretary LLOYD AUSTIN attached to the “Civilian Harm Mitigation and Response Action Plan” — which officials are short-handing as CHMRAP, pronounced “chim-wrap” — the Pentagon will:
— Establish a CHMR Steering Committee to implement the plan across the whole of DoD.
— Create a Civilian Protection Center of Excellence “to expedite and institutionalize” ways to reduce civilian harm. It will be stood up in the next fiscal year, though it will take a few more years to set it up fully.
— "Incorporate deliberate and systemic measures to mitigate the risks of target misidentification.”
— Establish procedures to assess and investigate incidents of civilian harm.
— Review how DoD response to incidents, including “condolences and the public acknowledgement of harm.”
There’s more, but you get the idea. The senior defense official said the plan was meant to be “systemic” and be “implementable immediately.” The plan will cost “tens of millions of dollars” to execute, though the final number depends on a manpower study and negotiations with lawmakers, the official said.
Importantly, there’s nothing in the plan about punishment — as in, what to do if someone inappropriately makes a decision that kills civilians. No one was reprimanded following the Kabul strike because the Pentagon said everyone followed the right procedures. How those procedures will be addressed, or what happens to an official who breaks them, is still unclear.
Furthermore, it appears the Pentagon has charted a middle course. The report doesn’t go far enough to make civilian harm a top component in military decision-making — they just want the issue to be “baked in” — which will anger activists. But it also adds extra layers of bureaucracy, which will concern commanders who want to make quick, life-or-death decisions.
Some, though, found the announced changes to be sweeping. “This is a sea change,” MARC GARLASCO, who investigated U.S.-caused civilian deaths caused for the United Nations, told The New York Times. “It doesn’t mean civilians won’t be killed in war anymore. They will. But if this plan is implemented and properly resourced, it will ensure fewer people will die and create a way for the Defense Department to respond when civilians are killed.”
In January, Austin directed a review and creation of a plan to minimize civilian casualties on the battlefield. It came after a string of Pulitzer Prize-winning stories in The New York Times about how the Pentagon consistently downplayed harm to civilians during the planning of military operations and even after incidents occurred. The August 2021 strike that killed 10 people was initially labeled “righteous” by Gen. MARK MILLEY, the Joint Chiefs chair, when he believed an ISIS militant had been killed. The Times soon showed that civilians were killed, not terrorists.
It does seem like the Pentagon is learning some lessons already, though. Two retaliatory strikes against Iran-backed militants in Syria were called off over concern about killing civilians .
Pentagon Shares Plan to Lower Civilian Deaths, a Year After Botched Airstrike Killed 10
‘Flexible Plan’
According to the Pentagon, the new plan aims to “improve strategic outcomes, optimize military operations, and strengthen [the Defense Department’s] ability to mitigate civilian harm during operations.”
The department characterizes it as “a flexible plan that advances the ability of [the Pentagon] to mitigate civilian harm and achieve strategic success across the full spectrum of conflict.” The 36-page document detailing the plan (pdf) says it is inherently scalable, meaning it is “relevant to counterterrorism operations as well as high intensity conflict,” and “relevant to both kinetic and non-kinetic activity.”
The plan prioritizes “the protection and restoration of the civilian environment as a critical factor in the planning and conduct of military operations,” among other things that will achieve its aims.
Actions set out in the plan “will facilitate continued learning throughout” the Pentagon to improve its approach, including in assessing and investigating previous U.S. combat operations; and improve the department’s ability to “effectively respond” in the case of civilian harm. It will also include learning about how these approaches “can be tailored to different types of conflicts, operations, and operational theaters.”
The department also said the new civilian harm mitigation plan “will enhance [the Department of Defense’s] ability to identify instances where institutional or individual accountability may be appropriate for violations of [the Department of Defense Civilian Harm Mitigation and Response] policies and applicable law.”
Action points in the plan are also aimed at improving accountability and transparency related to civilian harm as a result of U.S. military operations, according to the Pentagon release.
The action plan will also “enhance the [Department of Defense’s] ability to identify instances where institutional or individual accountability may be appropriate for violations of DoD CHMR policies and applicable law,” the document reads.
The Pentagon will begin implementing the plan immediately, but certain actions “will require additional time to properly implement,” it noted.
Ken Silva contributed to this report.
From The Epoch Times
Mimi Nguyen Ly Aug 26, 2022
A relative of Ezmarai Ahmadi, stands next to a vehicle that was damaged on Aug. 29 in a U.S. drone strike that killed Ahmadi, seven children, and two other adults in the Kwaja Burga neighborhood of Kabul, Afghanistan, on Sept. 18, 2021. (Hoshang HashimiAFP via Getty Images)
The U.S. Department of Defense on Aug. 25 unveiled a plan to mitigate and respond to civilian injuries and deaths that result from U.S. military operations, coming almost a year after a botched U.S. drone airstrike killed 10 civilians.
Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin in January ordered top civilian and military officials in the Pentagon to develop the “Civilian Harm Mitigation and Response Action Plan.” Pentagon spokesman Brigadier General Pat Ryder told reporters during a briefing on Aug. 25 that Austin approved the plan earlier this week.
Its release on Aug. 25 comes almost a year after a botched U.S. drone airstrike on Aug. 29, 2021, caused the deaths of 10 innocent Afghan civilians, including seven children, in Kabul, Afghanistan. The Pentagon didn’t acknowledge that the drone strike killed innocent civilians and didn’t kill any terrorists until more than two weeks later, on Sept. 17, 2021.
Congressional testimony by three top officials from the U.S. military on Sept. 29, 2021, contradicted earlier military statements about what the government knew in the aftermath of the incident. Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) in February this year said he doesn’t understand why U.S. military officials seemingly attempted to deny killing civilians for weeks in the wake of the Aug. 29 strike.
The release of the new action plan also comes after a report in November 2021 by the New York Times that detailed a U.S. airstrike that killed at least 64 civilians in Baghuz, Syria, in 2019, which, until the report, had not been made known to the public.
New Central Hub
Ryder told reporters during a briefing on Aug. 25 that the new action plan involves putting people “who are trained to have an understanding of civilian harm, the aspects of civilian harm mitigation, and operational planning” at all operational levels throughout the military.
These people will work for the Civilian Protection Center of Excellence, which is established under the new plan.
“The Center of Excellence will be sort of the hub that will provide expertise at a centralized location, but then that will be dispersed throughout the Department of Defense, at the [U.S. Central Command] level, at the component level,” Ryder said. “We estimate this will be approximately 150-plus individuals that will have special training and understand this.”
“The other piece of this will be incorporating it into doctrine, into instructions, into operational planning as a factor. So, that eventually will inculcate itself into the force down to the from the lowest echelon up to the highest level here at the Pentagon,” he added.
“What it does, especially at the combatant command level, is it provides someone who’s trained who understands who can advise at a level that has not always been consistent across the department,” Ryder noted. “And it’s not that we haven’t taken civilian harm or mitigation into account in the past. It’s just trying to apply a consistent approach across the department.”
The U.S. Department of Defense on Aug. 25 unveiled a plan to mitigate and respond to civilian injuries and deaths that result from U.S. military operations, coming almost a year after a botched U.S. drone airstrike killed 10 civilians.
Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin in January ordered top civilian and military officials in the Pentagon to develop the “Civilian Harm Mitigation and Response Action Plan.” Pentagon spokesman Brigadier General Pat Ryder told reporters during a briefing on Aug. 25 that Austin approved the plan earlier this week.
Its release on Aug. 25 comes almost a year after a botched U.S. drone airstrike on Aug. 29, 2021, caused the deaths of 10 innocent Afghan civilians, including seven children, in Kabul, Afghanistan. The Pentagon didn’t acknowledge that the drone strike killed innocent civilians and didn’t kill any terrorists until more than two weeks later, on Sept. 17, 2021.
Congressional testimony by three top officials from the U.S. military on Sept. 29, 2021, contradicted earlier military statements about what the government knew in the aftermath of the incident. Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) in February this year said he doesn’t understand why U.S. military officials seemingly attempted to deny killing civilians for weeks in the wake of the Aug. 29 strike.
The release of the new action plan also comes after a report in November 2021 by the New York Times that detailed a U.S. airstrike that killed at least 64 civilians in Baghuz, Syria, in 2019, which, until the report, had not been made known to the public.
New Central Hub
Ryder told reporters during a briefing on Aug. 25 that the new action plan involves putting people “who are trained to have an understanding of civilian harm, the aspects of civilian harm mitigation, and operational planning” at all operational levels throughout the military.
These people will work for the Civilian Protection Center of Excellence, which is established under the new plan.
“The Center of Excellence will be sort of the hub that will provide expertise at a centralized location, but then that will be dispersed throughout the Department of Defense, at the [U.S. Central Command] level, at the component level,” Ryder said. “We estimate this will be approximately 150-plus individuals that will have special training and understand this.”
“The other piece of this will be incorporating it into doctrine, into instructions, into operational planning as a factor. So, that eventually will inculcate itself into the force down to the from the lowest echelon up to the highest level here at the Pentagon,” he added.
“What it does, especially at the combatant command level, is it provides someone who’s trained who understands who can advise at a level that has not always been consistent across the department,” Ryder noted. “And it’s not that we haven’t taken civilian harm or mitigation into account in the past. It’s just trying to apply a consistent approach across the department.”
‘Flexible Plan’
According to the Pentagon, the new plan aims to “improve strategic outcomes, optimize military operations, and strengthen [the Defense Department’s] ability to mitigate civilian harm during operations.”
The department characterizes it as “a flexible plan that advances the ability of [the Pentagon] to mitigate civilian harm and achieve strategic success across the full spectrum of conflict.” The 36-page document detailing the plan (pdf) says it is inherently scalable, meaning it is “relevant to counterterrorism operations as well as high intensity conflict,” and “relevant to both kinetic and non-kinetic activity.”
The plan prioritizes “the protection and restoration of the civilian environment as a critical factor in the planning and conduct of military operations,” among other things that will achieve its aims.
Actions set out in the plan “will facilitate continued learning throughout” the Pentagon to improve its approach, including in assessing and investigating previous U.S. combat operations; and improve the department’s ability to “effectively respond” in the case of civilian harm. It will also include learning about how these approaches “can be tailored to different types of conflicts, operations, and operational theaters.”
The department also said the new civilian harm mitigation plan “will enhance [the Department of Defense’s] ability to identify instances where institutional or individual accountability may be appropriate for violations of [the Department of Defense Civilian Harm Mitigation and Response] policies and applicable law.”
Action points in the plan are also aimed at improving accountability and transparency related to civilian harm as a result of U.S. military operations, according to the Pentagon release.
The action plan will also “enhance the [Department of Defense’s] ability to identify instances where institutional or individual accountability may be appropriate for violations of DoD CHMR policies and applicable law,” the document reads.
The Pentagon will begin implementing the plan immediately, but certain actions “will require additional time to properly implement,” it noted.
Ken Silva contributed to this report.
From The Epoch Times
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