Daniel Katz
//The Hidden Toll of America Abroad//
“There must be near-certainty that no civilians will be killed or injured,” promised President Obama in regards to Middle-Eastern drone strikes in 2013. In 2015, John Brennan, one of the former president’s trusted advisors, claimed that not a single combatant had been killed in strikes that year. A senior official, following Trump’s electoral college victory in 2016, said that the death count from airstrikes was in the single digits and that higher counts drew on false propaganda. Several years later, we now know that these were all lies.
In December 2021, the New York Times obtained a plethora of documents from the military revealing the extent of civilian casualties from air warfare in the Middle East. The Pentagon has acknowledged that its airstrikes and bombing campaigns have resulted in a total of more than 1,605 civilian deaths and still more total casualties: a number significantly higher than acknowledged by officials in the Obama administration. The documents detail specific events revealing how limiting factors on the battlefield and “fog of war,” in military spokesman Captain Urban’s words, “can lead to decisions that tragically result in civilian harm.” In 2015 for example, an “unknown heavy object,” perceived to be a threat, was struck by American forces and destroyed. A Pentagon review found that the object was a child. This appalling information has been kept from the public eye primarily through the military’s lack of transparency and unwillingness to punish wrongdoing. In 2017, a strike in West Mosul on what was believed to be a car bomb resulted in the deaths of at least seven civilians. According to the Times, in all the records, there was “only one instance,” where the military believed there was a possible breach of its engagement rules. Additionally, much of the information found in these documents has been cut from reports designed to illuminate them. A researcher who analyzed civilian casualties and contributed to a 2018 military self-review on collateral death claimed most of his findings were cut from the report. Sometimes the studies are simply never made public.
This disturbing report has cast a damning light on American interventions abroad. In our attempts to fight terror and endeavors to bring about a “global democratic revolution,” the American military has harmed many innocent people in the Middle East. Our War on Terror has deprived many civilians in the region of safety, freedom, and lowered their quality of life. This report primarily demonstrates the need to rework the innards of the military. Any organization, but especially one that is costing American taxpayers 778 billion dollars, must be transparent, especially regarding its past wrongdoing. To assuage both these issues, a full reworking of American foreign policy is necessary. We must put a stop to endless, costly, and destructive war in the Middle East; we must redirect significant portions of the military’s budget to other initiatives, such as education and healthcare; and we must bring about an overhaul of military code and policies.
Image Credit – https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/29/world/asia/us-drone-strike-evacuation.html