CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA (CVILLE RIGHT NOW) – Sen. Tim Kaine the Pentagon may be violating the law when it comes to how it monitors and controls the protection of citizens during military strikes in Iran, noting that the office tasked with that work, concerns heightened by the deadly strike that hit an Iranian school last week.
“I think they’ve gutted this congressionally mandated function and office, and we are deeply, deeply concerned about this strike that killed 170 school kids,” Kaine said. “You wonder whether a priority of the Pentagon to gut the office that tries to minimize civilian casualties had any impact on it.”
Secretary of War Pete Hegseth slashed offices of more than 200 employees to less than 40 last year. But Kaine and others argue those offices cannot be closed because they are approved by Congress.
“I led a letter with colleagues last year to Sec. Hegseth telling him we put this in law for a reason, and you shouldn’t try to shut this down because it’s a hallmark of the U.S. compared to other nations that when we carry out military activities, we try to reduce harm to civilians. And I’ve seen this again and again in my 13 years in the Armed Services Committee,” Kaine said.
Kaine said if it’s confirmed that the school was struck by a U.S. Tomahawk missile, it would indicate one of two things.
“Either we’ve changed our traditional targeting rules, or we made a mistake. If we’ve changed our traditional targeting rules, and we no longer provide the same level of protection for civilians, that, in my view, would be tragic. We need to get that out on the table if that is, in fact, the case.”
Kaine said that on Tuesday, Hegseth talked about wanting to get rid of rules of “stupid engagement.”
“When he talked about wanting to get rid of stupid rules of engagement, [it] caused my antenna to go up because it’s the rules of engagement, and I’ve looked at targeting criteria in other military actions where in the rules of engagement, it makes very clear, minimize civilian risk,” he said. “Don’t target, don’t hit targets unless there is near certainty that there are no women and children in the targets. This is in other military actions.”
The investigation will be investigated by an officer outside of U.S Central Command and, according to Secretary Hegseth, will take as long as necessary to address the matters surrounding the incident, but its findings will be shared once they are obtained.
