The Pentagon isn't counting civilian casualties in ISIS strikes
The U.S. military has dropped some 8,200 bombs in the fight against ISIS, and it claims that not a single one has produced any civilian casualties. "To date, we've got a very good record," says Lt. Gen. James L. Terry. "I am tracking no civilian casualties."
This incredible claim flies in the face of both common sense and independent, on-the-ground reports. And, in fact, it's only possible because Terry was speaking strictly literally when he says he's not tracking any civilian casualties: The Pentagon is not bothering to count civilian deaths.
This is not the first time the U.S. has simply ignored the civilian death toll. In the early years of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, no count was kept of civilian casualties until local outrage at apparently haphazard bombing campaigns forced greater accountability.
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Bonnie Kristian was a deputy editor and acting editor-in-chief of TheWeek.com. She is a columnist at Christianity Today and author of Untrustworthy: The Knowledge Crisis Breaking Our Brains, Polluting Our Politics, and Corrupting Christian Community (forthcoming 2022) and A Flexible Faith: Rethinking What It Means to Follow Jesus Today (2018). Her writing has also appeared at Time Magazine, CNN, USA Today, Newsweek, the Los Angeles Times, and The American Conservative, among other outlets.
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