Dead CIVILIANS Reported – U.S. Government Finally Responds
(TargetLiberty.org) – After criticism for botched attacks that killed innocent civilians, the Pentagon has released a new plan to improve targeting. A team of experts will work with those who carry out the missions to minimize the impact of war on non-combatants. That’s good news for civilians, and it’s also good news for US troops who have faced too many revenge attacks in the wake of strikes gone wrong.
Pentagon lays out plan to reduce civilian deaths in US combat operations https://t.co/OkALgorXIk pic.twitter.com/T8iXRj3Rzn
— The Hill (@thehill) August 25, 2022
In March 2019, a US airstrike in Syria killed 80 people, most of whom turned out to be civilians; a USAF officer who was monitoring the attack reported it as a suspected war crime. Then, last August, a USAF drone killed 10 people in Kabul during the chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan. It turned out the attack was launched with no real evidence, only a chain of assumptions, which all turned out to be wrong.
Following the Kabul attack, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin ordered the Pentagon to come up with a course of action to avoid civilian casualties. On August 25, the Civilian Harm Mitigation and Response Action Plan (CHMR-AP) was unveiled. It aims to make sure US forces have the knowledge needed to hit the right targets and avoid harming the innocent.
Under CHMR-AP, the Pentagon will set up a new “center of excellence” to build knowledge on how military operations affect civilians and get that knowledge to the shooters who need it. The center will employ around 150 specialists, and will be able to deploy field teams to support operations. Once it’s up and running, our troops and civilians should be protected from the consequences of poor targeting — and that will keep them safer, too.
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