Los Angeles Times - 08.09.2019

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The United

Nations mis-

sion in Af-

ghanistan

reported

recently that

U.S. airstrikes

and Afghan

security

forces killed

more civilians in the first

half of 2019 than the Taliban

did.

The mission says “pro-

government forces” killed

717 civilians while “anti-

government forces” killed

531, and 118 deaths could not

be attributed.

U.S. officials dispute the

numbers. But if the U.N. is

right, Afghans face greater

danger of death from their

government and its allies

than from the Taliban, even

counting a recent series of

grisly car bombings in

Kabul.

In Syria and Iraq, the

U.S.-led coalition estimates

that its airstrikes and ar-

tillery killed 1,321 noncom-

batants in the war against

Islamic State since U.S.

forces intervened in 2014 —

but Airwars, an independ-

ent monitoring group, says

at least 8,106 were killed.

In Yemen, where Saudi

Arabia’s military is using

U.S. intelligence to bomb

Iran-backed Houthi insur-

gents with U.S.-supplied

munitions, the U.N. says

almost 20,000 civilians have

been killed. Last week, a

U.N. panel accused both

sides of war crimes and

warned that the United

States may be complicit.

The Trump adminis-

tration has also escalated

the U.S. war against Shabab

militants in Somalia,

launching 123 airstrikes

since early 2017. That’s four

times as many as the

Obama administration

conducted over eight years.

The Pentagon has acknowl-

edged only two civilian

deaths since 2017. Amnesty

International says at least 14

civilians were killed, but

on-the-ground reporting is

almost impossible.

What’s the common

thread? In all these con-

flicts, the Trump adminis-

tration is trying to minimize

the number of U.S. troops

on the ground by disengag-

ing, fighting through prox-

ies or limiting U.S. involve-

ment to airstrikes and spe-

cial operations.

But that hasn’t reduced

the civilian casualties

caused by U.S. and allied

forces. It has made the

problem worse.

It’s tempting to ascribe

the change to the tone set by

President Trump, who once

proposed killing militants’

family members and

boasted: “We are not nation-

building again. We are

killing terrorists.”

U.S. forces haven’t re-

laxed their prohibitions

against targeting civilians.

They insist they still take

pains to avoid harming

innocents.

Instead, most of the

increase in civilian casu-

alties has stemmed from a

sharp increase in U.S. and

allied airstrikes. The Penta-

gon says its forces in Af-

ghanistan conducted 1,

airstrikes in the first seven

months of this year; that’s

more than any full year

since 2013.

U.S. and allied forces also

relied largely on airstrikes to

help retake two urban cen-

ters held by Islamic State in

2017: Raqqah in Syria and

Mosul in Iraq. Thousands of

civilians were caught in the

crossfire, or blocked by the

militants from fleeing.

“It’s not so much that the

gloves are off or that they

don’t care about civilians,”

Daniel Mahanty, a former

State Department official at

the Washington-based

nonprofit Center for Civil-

ians in Conflict, told me.

“It’s that they want to ex-

ecute these operations in a

way that focuses on speed,

agility and overwhelming

force.”

When the core U.S. strat-

egy in Afghanistan or Iraq

was “counterinsurgency,”

winning the hearts and

minds of civilians was an

essential military goal. It’s

no longer central.

Local militias and spe-

cial operations units, some

of them directed by the CIA,

are partly to blame for the

increase in civilian casu-

alties.

One such unit, the Khost

Protection Force in eastern

Afghanistan, has been

accused of a series of abu-

sive actions. On Aug. 11,

according to Afghan re-

ports, the force captured

and executed 11 unarmed

civilians, including several

students. Last week, Afghan

President Ashraf Ghani

fired his national intelli-

gence chief, who helped

direct the units.

Saudi Arabia’s war

against the Houthis in

Yemen has produced the

most egregious casualties,

with airstrikes hitting hos-

pitals, schools and other

civilian targets. The Trump

administration is providing

the Saudis with intelligence,

tactical advice and weap-

onry — including help in

targeting airstrikes.

U.S. military officials

have jawboned the Saudis

since the war began in 2015

to avoid civilian targets,

arguing that harming civil-

ians is counterproductive as

well as immoral.

“It is a catastrophe,”

then-Secretary of Defense

James N. Mattis told a Sen-

ate committee last year. He

said U.S. advisors were

trying to change the Saudi

military’s “culture.”

The effort has had no

visible effect. Last week, a

Saudi airstrike struck a

detention camp run by the

Houthis inside a university

south of Sana, Yemen’s

capital, killing at least 100

people.

After 18 years of grinding

wars on distant battlefields,

Americans are understand-

ably eager to bring the

troops home.

But even if most are

pulled out, the Trump ad-

ministration plans to stay

involved in these conflicts —

through airstrikes, special

operations, intelligence

sharing and other aid to

“partner forces.” Paradoxi-

cal as it may seem, civilian

casualties may continue to

increase.

We will be tempted to

declare that our wars are

over. They won’t be.

McManus’ column appears

on Wednesday and Sunday.

Trump’s deadly style of war

U.S. and Afghan forces are now killing more civilians than the Taliban

DOYLE McMANUS

LETTER FROM WASHINGTON

THE U.N.says “pro-government forces” in Afghanistan killed at least 717 civilians in the first half of 2019 and

“anti-government forces” at least 531. Above, Afghan troops in a military exercise this May in Herat province.

Hoshang HashimiAFP/Getty Images

Minimizing

the number of

U.S. troops on

the ground has

made the problem

of civilian

casualties worse.