Advertisement

Drudge Retort: The Other Side of the News
Friday, May 15, 2026

Internal Pentagon Report Reveals Hegseth Is Willfully Putting Civilians in Danger

A damning Department of War report finds that the Pentagon didn't fully implement any required civilian harm mitigation measures.

The Pentagon's top watchdog says cuts to civilian harm mitigation and response efforts have been so severe under War Secretary Pete Hegseth that the United States cannot adequately protect civilians in conflict zones.

Thursday's scathing analysis by the Department of War's inspector general came on the same day that the top U.S. commander overseeing the war in Iran dismissed reports of civilian casualties and said the U.S. had no means to corroborate reports of strikes on hospitals and schools.

The inspector general specifically notes that the military stopped funding a database that tracks civilian harm that could be used for such verification.

More

Comments

Admin's note: Participants in this discussion must follow the site's moderation policy. Profanity will be filtered. Abusive conduct is not allowed.

"While damning, the former chief of harm assessments at the Pentagon's Civilian Protection Center of Excellence nonetheless called the new report a "whitewash" that downplays the evisceration of the Center and the entire enterprise devoted to reducing civilian casualties.

"What exists of the Center of Excellence since March 2025 is a shell on paper with no budget, no mandate or real mission, no authority."

;;

Civilians don't count to the Trump Junta.

#1 | Posted by Corky at 2026-05-15 10:35 PM | Reply

It seems that civilian casualties are not on the same level of concern to Pres Trump and Sec Defense Hegseth as the video-game-like videos they provide to the public.

#2 | Posted by LampLighter at 2026-05-15 10:50 PM | Reply

They didn't even protect the troops themselves under Hegseth. They took the initial barrages in unfortified trailers without sufficient warning.

#3 | Posted by jpw at 2026-05-16 10:01 AM | Reply

The following HTML tags are allowed in comments: a href, b, i, p, br, ul, ol, li and blockquote. Others will be stripped out. Participants in this discussion must follow the site's moderation policy. Profanity will be filtered. Abusive conduct is not allowed.

Anyone can join this site and make comments. To post this comment, you must sign it with your Drudge Retort username. If you can't remember your username or password, use the lost password form to request it.
Username:
Password:

Home | Breaking News | Comments | User Blogs | Stats | Back Page | RSS Feed | RSS Spec | DMCA Compliance | Privacy

Drudge Retort