Top Commanders Told Hegseth Not to Cut Civilian Protection Program, Poll Showed. He Did It Anyway.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth ignored his own commanders when he gutted a Pentagon program meant to protect civilians in combat, ProPublica reports. In an investigation published Tuesday, the outlet found that Hegseth polled senior officers in early 2025 on scaling back or eliminating the initiative — called Civilian Harm Mitigation and Response — and every single commander pushed back, with some insisting on keeping it fully staffed. He slashed it anyway, leaving only a handful of personnel as U.S. strikes in Yemen and Iran killed hundreds of civilians, including more than one hundred children in a single school strike in Iran. The Pentagon is now moving to partially restore the program amid pressure from Congress and fallout from those strikes.

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