Elizabeth Warren Questions Top Military Nominees About How To Reduce Casualties Of Civilians

Forbes Breaking News

At today's Senate Armed Services Committee hearing, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) questioned nominees about mitigating civilian casualties.

Transcript

00:00Senator Warren.

00:02Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and congratulations to both of you on your nominations.

00:08So the American military is built to defeat our enemies, not to create more of them.

00:14And that is why Republican and Democratic administrations have worked to reduce risks

00:20to innocent civilians as part of military operations.

00:25In fact, the last Trump administration issued DOD's first instruction to establish policies

00:32to mitigate civilian harm after concerns grew about civilian casualties in the campaign

00:39against ISIS.

00:40Now, one of the tools that commanders now have in the toolkit is working with civilian harm

00:47and mitigation response advisors, from refining war games to real attack planning in the Middle

00:54East and Africa operations, and more.

00:59Vice Admiral Bradley, your predecessor at Special Operations Command, recently said that these

01:04experts, quote, assisted commanders and their staffs in mitigating civilian harm without

01:11compromising lethality.

01:14What's more, their knowledge, quote, enhanced precision, preserving legitimacy, and enabling

01:21Michigan success.

01:23So Vice Admiral Bradley, if you are confirmed, will you commit to keeping civilian harm prevention

01:30experts at SOCOM to advise you and your team?

01:34Senator, first, just to resonate, it is not only an obligation to adhere to the law of armed

01:40conflict, to protect civilians.

01:42It is critical to our success and competition to represent our values.

01:47I believe that every uniformed, every civilian, and every contractor that is employed or in

01:52oversight of the use of lethal force has a critical obligation to be able to do that,

01:58and I do commit to keeping that as a focus for our command, if confirmed.

02:02That is a strong answer, and I appreciate it.

02:05You know, other tools in the toolkit here are the Civilian Harm Mitigation and Response Action

02:11Plan and DOD's Policy Instruction on Civilian Harm, which outline DOD's plans and policies

02:18to reduce civilian harm risks.

02:21AFRICOM has made progress in implementing these policies, including through training allies

02:26and partners on how to reduce risks to innocent civilians.

02:31We are serving as a model that our other partners are now beginning to adopt.

02:37In May, the Nigerian Air Force announced its own Civilian Harm Prevention Plan.

02:44These are efforts that save innocent lives.

02:47Lieutenant General Anderson, if you are confirmed, will you carry forward these efforts to integrate

02:53civilian harm mitigation planning into AFRICOM operations and train allies in the region

03:00to help them do the same?

03:02Senator, to echo Vice Admiral Bradley's importance of this, this is a critically important

03:11show of our values.

03:12It's also important that we maintain the laws of armed conflict, and when we engage with our

03:17partners, that we help them educate and that we model this, and this has been something

03:21that when I was at Special Operations Command Africa, we did.

03:25We worked with partners, and when we saw things or heard of things that were credible, we encouraged

03:30them to investigate and to look into this, and then we gave them assistance as needed

03:35in order for them to conduct their own investigation.

03:38So I will continue, if confirmed, to take that on at AFRICOM.

03:42I appreciate that.

03:43I want to hit one other point here, because we also need to reduce harm to our own special

03:49operators.

03:50I've worked with Senator Ernst and others on this committee for years to address high

03:56levels of brain injury caused by blast overpressure.

04:00Exposed service members have reported debilitating symptoms, from seizures to depressions to suicidality.

04:09And now preliminary research is showing high rates of heart disease, chronic pain, hypertension,

04:15links to brain cancer, and neurodegenerative diseases.

04:20Clearly we have a lot more we need to learn.

04:22So let me ask, Vice Admiral Bradley, if confirmed, you'll oversee tens of thousands of special operations

04:29personnel.

04:31Do you support DOD partnering with outside experts to study the long-term effects of blast overpressure?

04:39Senator, I do.

04:42I have seen great benefit from our partnerships with academia and other organizations that

04:47are studying this problem critically.

04:49Our number one soft truth is that people are more important than hardware, and the critical

04:53part of those people is the intellectual capacity.

04:56Of course, that is jeopardized by these brain health issues.

05:02And we see them as a critical contract with our operators and our operators' families to

05:07ensure that we keep them sustainable.

05:09Well, I appreciate that very, very much.

05:13If you're confirmed, I'll be calling on you to help us with that.

05:16There's language in both the House and the Senate, NDAA, that would help us get this study.

05:22And there are lots of organizations like Homebase Massachusetts who have the expertise to help

05:28us get these answers.

05:29We owe this to our service members.

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