Full Breakdown
Defense Secretary Hegseth Slashes Civilian Harm Program, Faces Pushback After Deadly Strikes
8/25/2026, 9:55:47 PM
Reduction of the Civilian Harm Mitigation and Response program
Early in 2025, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth circulated a poll of senior commanders asking how to reshape the Civilian Harm Mitigation and Response (CHMR) effort. The poll offered three options: cut 65 % of staff while keeping the program operational, retain only a small Washington office, or eliminate the program entirely. Nine commanders selected the first option, but two commands—one overseeing the nuclear arsenal and another focused on cyber threats—rejected every option and demanded the full program. U.S. Central Command, which oversees Middle-East operations, insisted on preserving its full CHMR staff of 16 personnel. Despite this opposition, Hegseth ordered the program gutted, leaving only a handful of staff and stripping most funding.
Civilian casualties under the scaled-back effort
The first major operation of Hegseth’s tenure was a spring-2025 air campaign in Yemen that, according to the Pentagon’s 2025 civilian-casualty report and the watchdog Airwars, killed 153 civilians and wounded 243. By the time U.S. strikes began in Iran the following year, CHMR staff had fallen from just under 200 people to roughly two dozen, with Central Command’s team reduced to a single analyst despite its request for at least nine. On March 31, a U.S. airstrike hit the Shajarat al-Tayyiba Primary School in Minab, Iran, killing more than 100 children and sparking international outrage. Current and former defense officials have linked the reduced civilian-harm capacity to the misidentification that led to the school tragedy.
Internal and congressional reaction
Retired Army Gen. Erik Kurilla and other senior officers appealed to Hegseth to retain CHMR, arguing it enhanced precision and lethality. In April, eleven senators sent a letter to Hegseth condemning the school strike and accusing the administration of disregarding the legal and moral imperative to minimize civilian harm. Defense Department under-secretary of policy Elbridge Colby later circulated a memo proposing a partial reboot of CHMR with 70 full-time staff—about 35 % of the original size—citing the need for investigations, congressional reporting, and compensation for victims. The same commanders who had opposed the cuts endorsed the proposal.
Prospects for a partial revival
Colby’s memo suggests reconstituting civilian-harm staff across all regional commands and moving the Virginia-based Civilian Protection Center of Excellence from the Army to the Joint Staff to improve inter-service collaboration. Officials expect the refashioned effort to operate on a smaller budget; the Center’s annual budget was $7 million, while total civilian-security spending across commands was estimated at $80 million before the cuts.
Budget and operational context
Although CHMR represents a tiny fraction of the Defense Department’s overall spending, military leaders who fought in the post-9/11 “forever wars” have repeatedly described harm mitigation as a battlefield asset that reduces insurgent recruitment and supports mission success. A retired general told ProPublica that the program’s “operational effectiveness” and “civilian protection” are two sides of the same coin.
