President Trump's de facto "kill Muslims" policy?

© 2017 Peter Free

 

03 July 2017

 

 

Is killing innocent Muslims US policy?

 

Earlier this year, NGOs noticed a sharp rise in the number of "collateral" innocents killed, as the United States escalated its anti-ISIS war campaign under the new Donald Trump presidency.

 

When questioned in May, US Defense Secretary "Mad Dog" Jim Mattis said that:

 

 

"[C]ivilian casualties are a fact of life in this sort of situation.

 

"We have not changed the rules of engagement . . . . There is no relaxation of our intention to protect the innocent.

 

“Probably the most important thing we're doing now is we're accelerating this fight. We're accelerating the tempo of it. We are going to squash the enemy's ability to give some indication that they're, that they have invulnerability, that they can exist, that they can send people off to Istanbul, to Belgium, to Great Britain and kill people with impunity[.]

 

"[W]e do everything humanly possible, consistent with military necessity, taking many chances to avoid civilian casualties - at all costs."

 

© 2017 Middle East Eye and Agencies, Civilian deaths 'fact of life' in war on IS, says Pentagon chief, Middle East Eye (28 May 2017) (excerpts)

 

 

Given what has happened since

 

It seems that the United States is not trying very hard.

 

For example:

 

 

Two weeks ago, the American military finally acknowledged what nongovernmental monitoring groups had claimed for months:

 

The United States-led coalition fighting the Islamic State since August 2014 has been killing Iraqi and Syrian civilians at astounding rates in the four months since President Trump assumed office. The result has been a “staggering loss of civilian life,” as the head of the United Nations’ independent Commission of Inquiry into the Syrian civil war said last week.

 

But even as the civilian death toll ticks upward, the American military has relaxed oversight, investigation and accountability on civilian casualties.

 

© 2017 Micah Zenko, Why Is the U.S. Killing So Many Civilians in Syria and Iraq?, New York Times (19 June 2017) (paragraphs split)

 

 

Leading to speculation

 

Some analysts suspect that killing allegedly terrorist Muslim families is American policy now. However, rationally speaking, distinguishing terrorist wives and children from other spouses and kids is unlikely, when air strikes and other distance-originated means are involved.

 

Other thoughtful people see American-originated anti-civilian terror as being true to our innocents-targeting military tradition.

 

Secretary Mattis assures us that civilian deaths are to be expected in "in this sort of situation" — even though history indicates that squashing people in his described manner does not work to any legitimate geopolitical or ethical end.

 

 

The moral? — Either way, we are probably making more enemies and few friends

 

Which is hardly a recipe for strategic success anywhere.

 

Isn't that an error that people like Secretary Mattis are supposed to detect and correct?