December 8, 2020 By Daniel R. Mahanty and Elias Yousif When Biden takes his seat behind the Resolute desk, he will face the competing demands of ending America’s “forever wars” and simultaneously countering lingering threats of terrorism. Biden’s immediate predecessors chose to navigate these narrow straits by limiting the role of conventional U.S. forces in…
August 20, 2020 By Dan Mahanty So who is responsible for the duration of America’s forever wars? In his recent brief for the Quincy Institute, non-resident fellow Samuel Moyn directs the spotlight in a counterintuitive, and discomfiting, direction — toward the members of civil society that advocate for limiting civilian suffering in war. By focusing…
By Dan Mahanty March feels like a decade and a thousand COVID-19 news cycles ago, so you could be forgiven for having missed the news that on March 31, U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM) publicly committed to issuing a quarterly public report on civilian casualties alleged to have resulted from U.S. military operations. According to the press release, the…
February 20, 2020 – For the general public, the notion of a military investigation into a civilian death may conjure thoughts of investigations into high-profile incidents, such as the attack on the Médecins Sans Frontières hospital in Kunduz, Afghanistan, in 2015, or war crimes like the notorious murder and immolation of Afghan children by Staff Sgt. Robert Bales in…
SECURITY ASSISTANCE AND ARMS SALES A US-based training program for Afghan attack pilots has ended after more than 40 percent of the trainees went absent without leave, the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction said this week. The remaining students returned to Afghanistan to complete training. Only one class graduated from the program. The State…
It’s easy to see why counterinsurgency campaigns tread carefully around local bystanders. It’s no less important in larger-scale war. As the U.S. military shifts its focus from counterinsurgency to large-scale combat against near-peer competitors, the value of preventing civilian harm in the battle for “hearts and minds” has been largely displaced by an emphasis on the speed and decisiveness…
By: Dan Mahanty and Rita Siemion The Pentagon’s latest annual report on civilian casualties, released this morning, lists shockingly low numbers of reported casualties that the Department of Defense has assessed as “credible,” reflecting a need for better processes for determining how many civilians the United States is killing. While the report contains some improvements in reporting standards…
At least 13 civilians, mostly children, were killed and more than 100 injured when Saud-led coalition strikes hit a school in Sana last week. The Coalition denied carrying out any strikes, but the state-run news agency in Aden said the Houthis had stored weapons in a nearby warehouse. SECURITY ASSISTANCE AND ARMS SALES The State…
AFGHANISTAN The New York Times documented 10 civilian deaths in Afghanistan between March 28 and April 4. A report by The Economist describes the disputed civilian death toll from US operations in Somalia, Afghanistan, and the Middle East. The uncertainty may stem from America’s reliance on local forces on the ground, which limits the military…