The Defense Department is moving to dismantle efforts focused on reducing civilian harm in U.S. military operations, according to three defense officials, part of a Trump administration shift to scale back protections of innocents so commanders can focus more on “lethality” when conducting military strikes.
Pentagon leaders have decided to shutter civilian protection efforts across the agency, according to two of the officials. On the chopping block is a broad cross-command effort known as the Civilian Harm Mitigation and Response, which includes dozens of staffers worldwide who work alongside commanders to refine targeting operations, along with a center overseen by the Army that outlines best practices and training for military leaders to follow.
The engine of the effort, the Civilian Protection Center of Excellence, or CP CoE, was a target before President Donald Trump took office, with a Day 1 order for officials to submit plans for its “disestablishment.”
Though its formal closure requires congressional approval, staffers at the center have expressed concerns that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth will effectively gut the organization, said people familiar with the matter, who like some others spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue.
The center’s senior leadership was instructed Monday that the Pentagon was moving forward with plans to halt all civilian harm mitigation work, including winding down the center, rescinding Biden administration directives and firing or reassigning nearly 170 personnel who advise military leaders on limiting noncombatant casualties, said Wes Bryant, the center’s branch chief for civilian harm assessments.
The center and wider civilian harm mitigation effort do not play a decision-making role in advance of a planned strike nor do they have a legal review capacity, said Bryant, who previously served in Air Force Special Operations. Rather, the role is to advise commanders on the risks of collateral damage and offer a clearer picture of the combat environment, he said.
The moves have prompted alarm that the Pentagon might be more inclined to approve operations with little or no regard for civilian casualties, Bryant said. For now, he said, he has faith in commanders to be a bulwark against illegal or immoral orders.
“How much they can be successful over time,” he said, “we don’t know.”
The Pentagon said it had no information to provide about the issue.
An undated, pre-decisional draft memo from Army officials to the Pentagon obtained by The Washington Post outlines options for scaling back the center, describing “redundancies” shared by other commands that could be reallocated to “other war fighting priorities, including lethality and combat readiness” and “achieve significant cost savings.”
The center has an annual budget of $7 million.
“The Trump administration cannot avoid its obligations under international law simply by changing its internal policies,” said Daphne Eviatar, the director of the Security with Human Rights program at Amnesty International USA. “Congress, which has appropriated funds specifically for some of the efforts being cut, must step up in its oversight role to demand these changes are not implemented.”
The effort to reduce headcount at CP CoE accelerated last week, with an email sent to probationary employees informing them to accept a buyout option or face termination. Probationary employees at the center are at “high risk for dismissal,” according to a Friday email obtained by The Post – a marked change among leaders who were previously optimistic they would be shielded from Hegseth’s plans to fire thousands of Pentagon staff members.
Fourteen people, about half of the 15 month-old office’s civilian workforce, are considered probationary. All but two accepted the buyout, an Army official said. One person who declined the buyout said they did not trust the terms and that they were told they were fired but did not receive documentation.
Following inquiries from The Post on Monday, staff members at the center received “additional Army clarification,” including a legal review, according to obtained messages. Terminations were not expected right away, the center clarified.
The Army official stressed that no one has been fired and that the center was not targeted specifically for cuts but acknowledged that the Trump administration did prioritize its elimination.
The cull could be among the first of many at the Defense Department in coming weeks. The Pentagon said in a statement last month that it anticipated firing about 5,400 employees as soon as last week, and it has launched a study that could eventually reduce the department’s civilian workforce by 5 to 8 percent. With more than 900,000 civilian employees, that could lead to tens of thousands of job cuts.
“The Trump Administration is dismantling the system put in place to help ensure U.S. weapons are used and U.S. operations are conducted in a way that limits civilian harm,” Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Maryland) said in a statement to The Post. “By revoking these policies, we increase the risk that U.S. weapons are deployed in a manner that undermines our interests and values – ultimately posing a greater threat to our national security. Americans should be ashamed.”
About 30 people staff the center that provides best practices and tools for commanders to mitigate civilian harm, in response to thousands of civilian deaths during U.S. counterinsurgent operations following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States. The center was established under the Biden administration and passed into law by Congress, but the initial steps for a civilian harm policy began under the first Trump administration.
Civilian staff members include 12 veterans with backgrounds in targeting, intelligence, civil affairs or humanitarian organizations. They share best practices across the military and assist commanders and battlefield personnel in integrating new information into their battle plans.
Hegseth recently granted commanders the ability to green-light strikes without higher-level authorization, rolling back the approval layers imposed by the Biden administration that some military leaders found to be slow and bureaucratic.
But commanders have welcomed civilian harm mitigation staff members who have been installed throughout combatant commands, the Pentagon and intelligence community, officials said. Experts have helped refined war games, training models and weapons testing to better incorporate civilian harm variables, and have been absorbed into attack planning and even some strike teams for operations in the Middle East and Africa, officials said.
“Improving operational effectiveness and mitigating risk are not ‘woke’ ideology, they are the tools commanders need to win campaigns,” Matt Isler, a retired Air Force brigadier general, wrote in a Medium post that was published as rumors of the center’s closing began to circulate.
Central Command chief Gen. Michael “Erik” Kurilla, who oversees operations in the Middle East, has praised the work and has requested that team members be involved in targeting engagements, according to two people familiar with his comments.
Civilian Harm Mitigation and Response has “the full support” of Kurilla, a defense official said.
“This was all in the best interests of a smart, professional military,” said Sarah Yager, Washington director for Human Rights Watch. “It took over two decades to create, and it’s gone in an instant.”
Some commanders are trying to retain staffers they value by recoding their job descriptions, Bryant said, while other work is being done to memorialize the work.
“I’m helping archive all of our material, so that if and when we all come back someday we didn’t lose everything we worked on,” he said.
The Washington Post
