Pentagon quietly shut legally required program to prevent civilian deaths by military, watchdog finds
Source: The Guardian
The Pentagon has quietly dismantled a program it is legally required to operate to prevent and respond to civilian deaths in US military operations, according to its internal watchdog.
A report released by the department's inspector general concluded the US military no longer has the people, tools or infrastructure needed to comply with two federal statutes requiring it to maintain a functioning civilian casualty policy, and operate a Civilian Protection Center of Excellence (CP CoE).
Donald Trump's administration has been accused of making deep cuts to the Pentagon's civilian harm mitigation and response (CHMR) program, designed to handle training and procedures critical in limiting civilian harm in theaters of war.
Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/may/15/pentagon-civilian-death-program
Irish_Dem
(82,251 posts)Never thought I would say this.
pat_k
(13,834 posts)Along with the war crimes committed and threats, that are themselves war crimes.
erronis
(24,487 posts)Firing the IGs.
Trashing the DOJ, the FBI
Undermining the military and intelligence branches
Weakening science, education, health
Arming the violent
Ignoring the courts
angrychair
(12,488 posts)While I agree that it's clear this administration is violating the law by gutting the very organization meant to prevent civilian deaths, my greater concern is that it's needed at all.
I mean we need a program to tell our military not to kill innocent civilians?!?
If we need people to tell our military to not slaughter innocent people, to not bomb a school full of children, we should ask ourselves what the fuck are we teaching people in these military training schools.
Reminder that right now, we are using our military to act as judge, jury and executioner on boats out to sea, with zero oversight or any word from Congress.
Implicit in that point is that our military members seem perfectly happy to act as Judge Dredd of the open seas and if you think it's a giant leap of faith to go from that to people here in the US, you would be wrong.