Obama Administration Eases Policy On Preventing Civilian Casualties In Iraq, Syria

[Purveyor]

BY Ken Dilanian, Associated Press October 1, 2014 at 4:58 PM EDT

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama announced in May 2013 that no lethal strike against a terrorist would be authorized without “near-certainty that no civilians will be killed or injured.”

But amid unconfirmed reports of civilian casualties, the White House said this week that U.S. bombing in Iraq and Syria is not being held to the near-certainty standard. And the Pentagon, hamstrung by limitations in intelligence gathering, has been unable to determine in many cases whether the casualty reports are true.

“We do take extreme caution and care in the conduct of these missions,” Rear Adm. John Kirby, the Pentagon’s press secretary, said. “But there’s risk in any military operation. There’s a special kind of risk when you do air operations.”

When Obama outlined his strategy to fight the Islamic State group earlier this month, he cited as parallels the limited U.S. counterterrorism campaigns in Yemen and Somalia, where American drone missile strikes have targeted al-Qaida-linked militants. Aides said he was also thinking of Pakistan but didn’t mention those strikes because drone killings there are entirely the work of an officially unacknowledged CIA operation.

more...

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/civilian-casualty-standard-eased-iraq-syria/

[leftstreet]

1. 17+ Intel agencies, $68bn+ budget, but they're 'hamstrung?'

They've got to joking

[gratuitous]

2. "Extreme caution and care" to cover our fannies

Not to mention the extreme caution and care taken by our faultless intelligence and military geniuses to continue dropping bombs indiscriminately on a half dozen nations, while "officially" unacknowledging those bombings. Of course, the survivors of those unacknowledged murder runs are pretty cognizant of them, but as long as the people paying for them are kept unawares, we can keep doing them. Any retaliation from the righteously aggrieved is then painted as bloodthirsty terrorism.

It's a neat little package, and keeps being delivered no matter which party occupies the Oval Office, no matter if the incumbent is some clueless arrested development scion or a Nobel Prize laureate.

Ah well, it's something that just, you know, happens. Nobody can say how, nobody can be held responsible.