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The New York Sun has a great article on well-known documentary film-maker (and friend of this site) Evan Coyne Maloney.
What’s it like for a US or Israeli helicopter commander when the enemy hides among civilian populations?
Last night I attended an event at the University of Judaism in Los Angeles organized by The Council of Israeli Community and E’lan Productions. The event was a panel discussion between members of the armed forces who have participated in recent actions in the Iraq War and in the Intifada. The topic was the ethics of such conflicts with regard to the proximity of civilians in the theater of action.
Panelists included:
These guys are the real deal and have participated extensively and at great personal risk in combat.
Moderating was Major (reserve) Elan Frank, a Medal of Honor pilot in the Israeli Air Force.
Elan was particularly interested in discussing how Western forces behave in circumstances where civilians are near the theater of action.
The following quotes are from my handwritten notes. For this reason I do not state that they are 100% verbatim. The quotes are highlights, and do not represent a series of consecutive statements.
Major Degan: One of the main battlefields of the intifada is the media and the U.N.
Major Degan: It is up to the decision makers, the planners, and most importantly, the pilots, to make the decision to stop the missile if he’s going to kill innocent civilians—because at the end of the day [to kill civilians would be] harming us. If we kill civilians it hurts us. It does something to the pilot. ... The terrorists pick the battlefield. They choose heavily civilian urban areas.
Colonel Bill Morris: We’re very serious about not taking civilian casualties. That’s a primary goal. We don’t take civilian casualties lightly at all in the U.S. Army.
Major Elan Frank: If the Arabs would drop all weapons, all hostility would stop. But if Israel dropped all weapons, Israel would cease to exist.
Lt. Colonel Noam: We went to shoot an ammunition warehouse in Gaza. It was 1 a.m. Seconds before shooting a car came out and I said stop. The car went by, and we shot the warehouse. If the car had stopped we wouldn’t have done it. We would have come back tomorrow. So the pilot is a key part of the decision making process. We fly many, many missions—on most, you don’t shoot. Only on a very few missions, do you shoot. [Note: video of this event from inside Lt. Colonel Noam’s helicopter was shown, including the discussion among the crew regarding the car.]
Elan asked about the case of human shields—when civilians are in close proximity to fighters.
Lt. Colonel Noam: There are many examples of a terrorist with a rocket launcher on his shoulder and he goes through the street with many civilians around—many children—and you know that he is going to shoot that rocket at our people. What do you do? Most of the time we try to shoot 50 meters away from the terrorist, hitting an empty alley. This usually stops the action for the moment.
Major Degan: The Cobra helicopter will shoot 3.75 kilometers, and hit a target 30 by 30 inches.
Major Degan: The battlefield is among civilians. That’s where it is.
Major Elan Frank: The terrorists use this to their benefit.
I was very impressed with the great lengths they go to in order to avoid civilian casualties—even when these civilians are tacitly supporting the operations of the terrorists.
