\n<\/p>\n
The Pentagon\u2019s top<\/span> watchdog says cuts to civilian harm mitigation and response efforts have been so severe under War Secretary Pete Hegseth that the United States cannot adequately protect civilians in conflict zones.\u00a0<\/p>\n Thursday\u2019s scathing analysis by the Department of War\u2019s inspector general came on the same day that the top U.S. commander overseeing the war in Iran dismissed reports of civilian casualties and said the U.S. had no means to corroborate reports of strikes on hospitals and schools. The inspector general specifically notes that the military stopped funding a database that tracks civilian harm that could be used for such verification.<\/p>\n While damning, the former chief of harm assessments at the Pentagon\u2019s Civilian Protection Center of Excellence nonetheless called the new report a \u201cwhitewash\u201d that downplays the evisceration of the Center and the entire enterprise devoted to reducing civilian casualties.<\/p>\n The report focuses on the implementation of the Pentagon\u2019s 2022 Civilian Harm Mitigation and Response Action Plan<\/a>, or CHMR\u2011AP, which was mandated by the department to take full effect by the end of 2025. The inspector general found serious deficiencies and a chronic failure to meet timelines for 11 objectives consisting of 133 incomplete \u201cimplementing actions\u201d by the end of last year. The inspector general found that the Department of War \u201cdid not fully implement any of the CHMR-AP objectives by the end of FY 2025.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThis is a crisis of the Trump Administration\u2019s own making: They slashed the staffing and funding for civilian harm mitigation, and now they can\u2019t adequately follow the law and implement the CHMR-AP, leaving civilians and our own military personnel at risk,\u201d Rep. Sara Jacobs, D-Calif., a member of the House Armed Services Committee and the co-chair of the Protection of Civilians in Conflict Caucus, told The Intercept. \u201cThe Inspector General\u2019s report is clear about what that means: wasted munitions, failed strikes, damaged alliances, and propaganda wins for our adversaries. The Trump Administration needs to reverse course immediately so we can save lives and protect our national security.\u201d<\/p>\n The Intercept has previously reported<\/a> on Hegseth\u2019s gutting of CHMR efforts<\/a>. More than a year ago, five current and former Defense Department officials described Pentagon efforts to eliminate or downsize offices, programs, and positions focused on preventing civilian casualties.<\/p>\n The 43-page inspector general report details continuing efforts to hamstring protections for civilians in war zones, noting that \u201cDoW Components ended funding for the CHMR data management platform, stopped holding Steering Committee meetings, lost or reassigned many of the personnel dedicated to CHMR, and lost personnel and leadership\u201d at the Center of Excellence, which is focused on training and employing tools for preventing civilian casualties.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat exists of the Center of Excellence since March 2025 is a shell on paper with no budget, no mandate or real mission, no authority.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n Wes Bryant, who until last year served as the chief of civilian harm assessments and senior analyst and adviser on precision warfare, targeting, and civilian harm mitigation at the Center of Excellence, is one of those \u201clost personnel,\u201d having been forced out of his job after blowing the whistle on efforts to dismantle CHMR efforts.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is completely whitewashed of the truth,\u201d Bryant said of the report. \u201cIt reads as if the IG is completely deliberately ignoring the fact that the center and the entire CHMR enterprise was targeted for immediate shutdown, that 90 percent of billets were either terminated or forced out, and that what exists of the Center of Excellence since March 2025 is a shell on paper with no budget, no mandate or real mission, no authority and is completely locked out of visibility and oversight on all investigations and operations.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The watchdog\u2019s evaluation noted that Hegseth\u2019s War Department \u201cmay not comply with its civilian casualties and harm policy\u201d \u2014 which is required under federal law. The investigation also found that eliminating CHMR funding and personnel also \u201cdecreases readiness and increases risk to DoW personnel, mission success, and military objectives,\u201d according to officials at the Joint Staff, which is headed by Gen. Dan Caine, and at geographic combatant commands, which oversee U.S. operations in various corners of the world.<\/p>\n While couched in stilted language, the report details dangers to civilians due to cuts to CHMR efforts. It makes note of deficiencies in \u201cpersonnel and capabilities\u201d to protect civilians under Pentagon regulations that are mandated by federal law. And it mentions a lack of necessary \u201ctools\u201d at the Center of Excellence, including a \u201cdata management platform\u201d meant to track civilian harm incidents. The report notes that \u201caccording to Joint Staff and [combatant command] officials, eliminating CHMR funding and personnel makes mitigating or responding to civilian harm more difficult.\u201d Such officials also noted that \u201celiminating CHMR funding and personnel reduces battle space awareness and increases the risk of civilian casualties, damaged coalitions and alliances, loss of legitimacy, increased local resistance, propaganda opportunities for adversaries, prolonged conflicts, and failed strikes.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThis report makes it clear that the DoD is not complying with the law, nor its own policies, both of which were built on a bipartisan basis upon years of hard-learned lessons from wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Syria,\u201d Madison Hunke, the U.S. program manager of the Center for Civilians in Conflict, told The Intercept. \u201cAs Congress develops the budget for the upcoming fiscal year, they must ensure that it not only provides the DoD with the resources it needs to comply with law and policy but also conduct rigorous oversight to keep the DoD accountable for implementing these critical programs.\u201d<\/p>\n Reporting by The Intercept found a combatant command that has gone from a military backwater<\/a> to one engaged in regular kinetic activity<\/a> \u2014 U.S. Southern Command\u00a0\u2014 is unable to cope with the volume of civilian casualty reports. After the U.S.\u00a0attacked Venezuela<\/a>\u00a0in January , the U.K.-based watchdog group Airwars attempted to submit documentation of civilian casualties to SOUTHCOM, which oversees military operations in Latin America. The organization learned that SOUTHCOM has no mechanism for submitting these reports. After reaching out to the Pentagon, Airwars was told to submit documentation to the Center of Excellence.<\/p>\n The report specifically mentions the Center\u2019s \u201csupport for organizations such as the U.S. Southern Command,\u201d despite the fact that the Center \u201clost large numbers of personnel and leaders,\u201d does not have \u201cthe tools designed to meet its statutory roles and duties,\u201d and that the Army had developed plans, early last year, to euthanize it.<\/p>\n The report notes that an official from an unnamed combatant command \u201cstated that they largely divested their CHMR personnel, functions, and responsibilities as of March 2025.\u201d Another said that they did not \u201cwant to spend resources on actions or make future commitments for a program that may be significantly changed.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n\n