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The choice to assign the duty to somebody on the operational aspect, quite than to Pentagon officers who usually give attention to humanitarian issues, is alleged to be a delicate reflection of Mr. Austin’s dedication that fighters within the area will take critically concepts that emerge from the brand new effort to mitigate civilian hurt.
Then, inside 180 days of the memo — leaving three months to include the coverage plans Mr. Maier will develop — Mr. Austin directed the Pentagon to finish a broad, new coverage on mitigating civilian hurt that has been beneath growth for greater than two years. Often called an “instruction,” it’ll lock down the adjustments as Pentagon doctrine.
“It’s going to undertake a complete strategy, reinforcing that D.O.D.’s efforts to guard civilians are the accountability of all leaders all through the division, at all times, and never solely that of our commanders and personnel within the area,” Mr. Austin mentioned.
Whereas the memo is sparse on particulars, an individual conversant in the inner deliberations that led to it mentioned the intention was not restricted to creating adjustments within the context of conflict zone and counterterrorism strikes utilizing drones and different plane, which have led to high-profile cases of civilian deaths in recent times.
With the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan and Somalia and the drawdown of troops in Iraq and Syria, the frequency and relative significance of such strikes is anticipated to decrease.
Slightly, the particular person mentioned, the coverage aim is extra bold and future oriented: to additionally incorporate new fascinated by civilian protections throughout all the vary of army actions — together with rising realms like offensive hacking and house — the place disabling infrastructure like energy grids or satellites might hurt civilians in myriad methods, and so-called “data” operations or propaganda.
Mr. Austin’s memo contained veiled hints of the venture’s forward-looking scope.
“We’ll revisit the methods during which we assess incidents that will have resulted in civilian hurt, acknowledge the hurt to civilians that resulted from such incidents, and incorporate classes realized into the planning and execution of future fight operations and into our techniques, methods and procedures,” it mentioned.
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