Shortly after taking office last year, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth polled the nation’s top commanders about cutting a program designed to protect civilians during U.S. military operations.
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Hegseth → take → operations
Hegseth had bet senior officers would endorse his view that focusing on civilian security was “woke” and out of step with “maximum lethality,” current and former defense officials told ProPublica.
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officials → bet → ProPublica
Instead, every commander rebuffed the idea.
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commander → rebuff → idea
The poll from early 2025, which has not been previously reported, cemented top-level military support for Civilian Harm Mitigation and Response, a relatively new program adopted after years of heavy civilian tolls in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere.
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which → report → Iraq
As part of its mission, CHMR (pronounced “chimmer”) stationed personnel within major regional commands.
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CHMR → pronounce → commands
Officials tried to develop a picture of life on the ground in combat zones to aid decision-making on military strikes and avoid or minimize civilian harm.
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Officials → try → harm
In the poll, Hegseth gave commanders three options: cut 65% of staff but keep the effort operational, continue with only a small centralized office in Washington, or eliminate the program.
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effort → give → program
Nine commanders chose the first option to preserve the enterprise as much as possible, according to a memo reviewed by ProPublica.
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commanders → choose → ProPublica
Leaders of two commands, one overseeing the nuclear arsenal and the other focused on cyber threats, declined all three options, asking to maintain the full program.
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Leaders → oversee → program
Leaders at U.S. Central Command, the Tampa, Florida-based center that oversees military action in the Middle East, pressed to keep its full CHMR staff of 16.
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that → base → 16
Eliminating or scaling back the effort would “result in decreased efficiency of U.S. lethal operations due to an increased risk of target misidentification and reduced battlespace awareness,” a memo reviewed by ProPublica said.
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memo → eliminate → ProPublica
Retired Army Gen. Erik Kurilla, who was then in charge of Central Command, and several other senior officers directly involved in combat operations had appealed to Hegseth to keep the program.
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who → retire → program
They explained that it was a valuable tool, another retired general said — but “that intent was overridden.”
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intent → explain → ?
Hegseth gutted the effort, leaving only a handful of people to carry out the mission.
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Hegseth → gutte → mission
It was stripped of almost all of its funding, even as the U.S. launched new campaigns in Somalia, Yemen and Iran.
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U.S. → strip → Somalia
One official summed up the Hegseth approach as: “Bombs away!”
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official → sum → Bombs
Hegseth’s early exchanges with the generals made clear that the civilian harm program had no future in his reimagined “Department of War.”
“No more politically correct and overbearing rules of engagement,” Hegseth would later tell a gathering of hundreds of generals and admirals.
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Hegseth → make → generals
But now, after U.S. missile strikes have killed hundreds of civilians in Iran and Yemen, episodes that drew global criticism and questions from Congress, the program could soon be partially revived.
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program → kill → Congress
The about-face would mark a rare reversal in a department that hasn’t tolerated dissent under Hegseth and President Donald Trump.
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that → mark → Hegseth
Last year’s military memos detail a delicate pushback that may preserve at least the framework of the civilian security campaign.
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that → detail → campaign
Current and former defense officials described the evolution of the civilian security program on condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation from the Trump administration.
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officials → describe → administration
The Pentagon did not respond to requests for comment about the poll or the program’s revival.
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Pentagon → respond → poll
The first major military operation of Hegseth’s tenure — an air campaign in Yemen in the spring of 2025 — killed 153 civilians and wounded 243 others.
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operation → kill → others
The majority of the deaths came from just two strikes, ranking them among the deadliest for civilians the Pentagon has acknowledged in modern warfare, said Airwars, a British watchdog that tracks civilian harm from military operations.
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that → come → operations
The toll was confirmed in the Pentagon’s 2025 annual report for civilian casualties, The Washington Post first reported.
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Post → confirm → casualties
Hegseth described the Yemen operation at the time as a “clear, limited mission executed with ruthlessness, full stop.”
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Hegseth → describe → ruthlessness
By the time the U.S. began attacking Iran the next year, the Pentagon’s civilian protection program was down from a little under 200 people to around two dozen, some working only part time, the current and former defense officials said.
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officials → begin → dozen
Central Command, which said it needed a minimum of nine of its 16 staffers to function
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it → say → staffers
On the first day of the U.S. and Israel’s war on Iran, a U.S. airstrike hit a school in Minab, a city near the Strait of Hormuz, killing more than 100 children and igniting international outrage.
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airstrike → hit → outrage
Hegseth and the commander in charge of the Iran operation, Adm. Brad Cooper, were questioned about the strike before Congress.
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Hegseth → question → Congress
Hegseth said the U.S. does not target civilians and would investigate.
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U.S. → say → civilians
Early reports on that investigation, yet to be publicly released, have said outdated U.S. intelligence led to the attack on the school.
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intelligence → release → school
Democratic senators and humanitarian groups questioned whether the cuts to the civilian protection personnel also contributed to the school tragedy.
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cuts → question → tragedy
In a letter to Hegseth in April, 11 senators said the school strike, as well as other deadly attacks on civilians in Iran, reflected “the administration’s broader disregard for the strategic, legal, and moral imperative to minimize civilian harm,” noting the dismantling of civilian harm reduction efforts.
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strike → say → efforts
“This is a concerning pattern and raises questions about whether the administration is upholding international law and the laws of war,” it said.
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it → raise → war
Previously, a Pentagon spokesperson declined to answer questions from ProPublica about the letter, saying it would “respond directly” to Congress.
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it → decline → Congress
Concerns were voiced by military leaders before Hegseth largely eliminated the operation.
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Hegseth → voice → operation
One exception is the Department of the Army, headed by a civilian appointee, which agreed with getting rid of CHMR entirely.
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which → head → CHMR
Leaders at Central Command told Hegseth’s top staff in a memo that CHMR “enhanced our precision and accuracy, making us more lethal.”
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us → tell → precision
The memo added, “The operational and strategic value of this work is widely recognized.”
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value → add → work
…and 21 more, not listed.
