Report
Misfortunes of War: Press and Public Reactions to Civilian Deaths in Wartime
Dec 21, 2006
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This research, part of a larger study undertaken for the U.S. Air Force of ways to reduce collateral damage, analyzes press, public, and leadership reactions to civilian casualty incidents and how these incidents affect media reporting or public support for military operations. It analyzes U.S. and foreign media and public responses to the 1991 Al Firdos bunker bombing, the 1999 Djakovica convoy and Chinese embassy attacks, the 2002 Afghan wedding party attack, and the 2003 Baghdad marketplace explosion.
Western nations, such as the United States, have sought to reduce the likelihood of civilian casualties in war. Yet, U.S. adversaries have actively sought ways to place innocents at risk and thereby increase the human and moral costs of war—evidently in the hope of deterring or constraining the United States' ability to conduct military operations. Thus, at the same time that U.S. military leaders and policymakers seek ways to further minimize civilian casualties, there is growing concern about the effects that such incidents may have on public support for military campaigns.
RAND Project AIR FORCE (PAF) analyzed U.S. and foreign media and public opinion reactions to a number of high-profile incidents of collateral damage involving civilian deaths that were attributed to airpower in recent U.S. wars and military operations. The study concluded the following:
Although there are no simple solutions that can diminish the attention and emotion generated by incidents of civilian deaths, the U.S. Air Force and Department of Defense should bear certain factors in mind:
This report is part of the RAND Corporation Research brief series. RAND research briefs present policy-oriented summaries of individual published, peer-reviewed documents or of a body of published work.
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