By Joel Mathis The Week

Following the botched U.S. drone strike that killed 10 members of an Afghan family last year, the Pentagon has announced a new plan to reduce civilian deaths in America’s wars abroad. The Defense Department will set up a “civilian protection center of excellence” to develop policies and rules, institute new reporting requirements, and make the issue a priority in battle planning.

Preventing the deaths of innocents “is a strategic and moral imperative,” Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said in a memorandum to senior defense officials.

This is commendable. I’m just not sure if the new rules will work.

The New York Times has recently produced a series of investigative reports focusing on the U.S. war against ISIS in Syria, documenting a number of incidents in which civilians were killed or threatened. There was a 2017 strike on a dam that risked the lives of tens of thousands of people living downstream, and a 2019 bombardment that killed dozens of Syrian civilians. Both events were part of a broader pattern of U.S. forces unleashing deadly force with only the barest discrimination between terrorist fighters and the civilians who deserved protection.

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