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Ten Democratic members of Congress wrote to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Sunday that watering down programs focused on protecting civilians is a failure of leadership, puts service members at risk and undermines the military’s moral standing.
The joint letter, led by Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., echoed concerns raised by a recent Pentagon inspector general report that described civilian protection efforts as largely “inactive.” Lawmakers also cited reports from ProPublica and other news outlets promoting the preservation of the framework, known as Civilian Harm Mitigation and Response (CHMR).
“The Trump administration may be violating federal law by defunding and thwarting efforts to protect civilians,” the lawmakers argued.
A Pentagon spokesperson declined to answer questions from ProPublica, saying, “As with all Congressional communications, the Pentagon responds directly to the author.”
The withdrawal from civilian protection attracted global attention in February, when dozens of children and teachers were killed at a school in a suspected U.S. airstrike on the first day of the U.S.-Israel war in Iran. The incident is being investigated by the Department of Defense.
Beyond these deaths, conflict monitoring groups have recorded a spike in reports of civilian casualties, particularly in Somalia and Yemen, where U.S. airstrikes increased dramatically under the second Trump administration.
In March, ProPublica interviewed current and former national security officials across party lines who said the abandonment of civilian protection was part of a broader reshaping of the military around two key principles: more aggressiveness and less responsibility.
The harm reduction leadership, created in 2022 by a specialized civilian protection center mandated by Congress, is aimed at reducing the number of civilian casualties from U.S. military operations, an issue that has permeated the administration in the “forever wars” since 9/11.
The idea was to incorporate prevention experts within targeting teams and foster a culture that prioritized civilian safety in accordance with U.S. law and international rules of war. Senior military leaders publicly supported this mission, expressing both a moral obligation to protect civilian life and the need to attack the intended target.
The program was still unfolding when momentum stalled under Hegseth.
In the spring of 2025, amid reports that dozens of civilians were killed in U.S. operations in Yemen, the Pentagon scrapped the CHMR mission because it did not align with Hegseth’s “lethality” principles, according to current and former officials. Hegseth has repeatedly expressed disdain for guardrails, saying they get in the way of combat troops.
By the time of the Iran school strike, current and former employees told ProPublica, protection missions had been cut by about 90%, leaving only a few employees monitoring civilian harm issues, even as the Pentagon increased the tempo of strikes across Africa and the Middle East.
Extremist groups exploit civilian casualties to gain recruits and support, a move that retired Gen. Stanley McChrystal, who commanded U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan, calls “insurgent calculation.” The theory is that for every innocent person killed, at least 10 new enemies are created.
“The Trump Administration’s military adventurism overseas, combined with its clear disregard for civilians, does not ensure the safety of American citizens and military personnel,” the 10 Democratic members of Congress wrote in a letter to Hegseth.
Three of the signatories are veterans: Sen. Tammy Duckworth of Illinois, Sen. Mark Kelly of Arizona, and Rep. Jason Crow of Colorado.
The end of the letter included 20 questions that lawmakers wanted answered by July 9, including requests for updated CHMR staffing and funding numbers and an explanation of why the department was not cooperating with the inspector general’s investigation.
Current and former CHMR employees said it is impossible to know whether stronger prevention teams would have helped the military avoid civilian casualties in Yemen and Iran. But they said the program could have made a difference by providing transparency and immediate investigations into civilian deaths.
Within days of the attack on an elementary school adjacent to an Iranian military facility in Minab, an open-source investigative agency released a video showing that a U.S.-made Tomahawk missile was likely the culprit. The Washington Post, citing people familiar with the Minab investigation, reported that the school was on a U.S. target list and “could have been mistaken for a military facility.”
More than 150 students and staff at Shajare Tayebeh Girls’ Primary School in Iran were killed in a missile attack. Stringer/Anadolu, via Getty Images
Almost five months later, the Trump administration still hasn’t explained what happened.
“The command’s investigation will take as long as necessary to address all issues surrounding this incident,” Hegseth said in March.
Annie Seale, U.S. director of the Center for Civilians in Conflict, which advocates for the protection of non-combatants in war, said Congressional support is “critical” at a time when the CHMR’s mission is in jeopardy.
“The department violates U.S. laws and policies that were born from hard-learned lessons from past wars and have enjoyed bipartisan support across multiple administrations,” Seale said.
A plan born from the deaths of civilians
Historically, the military’s priorities for protecting civilians have followed a pattern, analysts say. A catastrophe occurs, civilians die, the Pentagon promises review and reform, and the problem recedes from view and oversight until the next disaster.
In August 2021, during the Biden administration’s chaotic withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan, a missile attack in Kabul killed an aid worker and nine of his relatives, including seven children. Then-Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin apologized and said the Department would “work to learn from this terrible mistake.”
The incident, along with a New York Times investigation into deaths from U.S. airstrikes, spurred the adoption of the 2022 Civilian Mitigation and Response Action Plan. Supporters did not see the plan as a panacea, but rather a step toward breaking the cycle of intermittent attention by making civilian protection a year-round mission.
Now, that mission is stalled, with Defense leadership “withholding access” to the department’s tools that track the program’s implementation, according to a May inspector general report.
“You are currently violating the law regarding harm to civilians,” U.S. Rep. Adam Smith, D-Wash., told Army Secretary Daniel Driscoll during a hearing in May. “I’d like to know either A. why you think it’s okay to ignore the laws passed by this Congress, or B. what you plan to do to fix the problem.”
The new letter comes as critics, including some Republicans and VA commanders, speak out about Hegseth’s efforts to reform the Department of Defense, which the Trump administration calls the Department of the Army.
The secretary’s firing of senior officials en masse without public explanation has drawn bipartisan criticism and condemnation, saying the move is rooted in political vendetta, racism and bias against women. Mr. Hegseth has repeatedly criticized military officers for his praise of diversity, saying in one speech that “we have become a ‘woke sector.'” …That’s all over now. ”
Hegseth said out of respect for the officers he would not discuss why they were fired. “It was very difficult to change the culture of a department that was destroyed by the wrong perspective by the same officers that were there,” he said.
Hegseth drew public condemnation last month after his decision to effectively fire Gen. Chris Donahue, a respected four-star commander who rose through the ranks of Special Forces. In 2023, Donahue said any concerns about wokeness are “BS,” adding, “We’re focused on people, fighting wars, and making sure we’re ready for the next battle. There’s no ‘wokeness’ here.”
