Eliot Engel: “I always view military policy as a measure of last resort in our foreign policy. When the American military is engaged…”

“I always view military policy as a measure of last resort in our foreign policy. When the American military is engaged anywhere in the world, it often comes at the cost of American lives and the lives of innocent civilians. These are the most tragic costs of war, one reason why we can never, ever be reckless in the use of military force. Civilian casualties are a tragedy. They also give extremist groups fodder to radicalize and recruit new fighters. We need to do everything in our power to reduce the number of civilian casualties. The Pentagon has made progress in this area thanks in part to new requirements Congress put in place. My amendment would build on this progress in a number of ways. First of all, it would help fill in the blanks when it comes to our own planning and reporting about civilian casualties. Right now, there tends to be a big difference between what the Defense Department estimates in terms of civilian casualties before a military strike and what the Department reports after and, again, a big difference between our official reporting and what NGOs report. My amendment would require a new analysis of these disparities to help figure out why we are getting it wrong ahead of time and why there is such a wide range of reporting after the fact. Secondly, while the Pentagon has done good work developing sound policies in this area, more must be done on implementation.…”