User:Jalapenos do exist/sandbox/ratio
The civilian casualty ratio or civilian death ratio is a metric applied to armed conflicts which measures the number of civilian casualties in proportion to the total number of people killed, either by a particular belligerent or in the conflict as a whole.
A low ratio of civilian deaths is generally perceived as desirable. Some commentators regard a low ratio as indicative of a belligerent's morality and adherence to the laws of armed conflict. Others argue that a force fighting terrorism might create a high ratio of civilian deaths despite efforts to the contrary, because of terrorists' tendency to hide among civilians. Calculation of the ratio may be complicated by uncertainty regarding the total number of people killed, the proper classification of people as civilians or combatants, or both.
According to Professor Alan Dershowitz of Harvard Law School, writing in 2008, the lowest civilian to combatant casualty ratio in history in the setting of combating terrorism was 1:30, meaning one civilian was killed for every thirty combatants killed. This record was achieved by Israel in its airstrikes on terrorists in the Gaza Strip in 2008.[1]
Overview
According to a 2001 study by the International Committee of the Red Cross, the civilian to soldier death ratio in wars fought since the mid-20th century has been 10:1, as in ten civilian deaths for every soldier death.[2]
Mary Kaldor writes that the civilian to combatant casualty ratio was 8:1 in wars in the 1990s, constituting a reversal of the ratio at the turn of the 20th Century, which stood at 1:8.[3]
Coalition forces in the Iraq War
According to a 2010 assessment by John Sloboda of Iraq Body Count, a United Kingdom based organization, American and coalition forces had killed at least 22,668 combatants as well as 13,807 civilians in the Iraq War, indicating an essential civilian to combatant casualty ratio of 1:2.[4]
NATO in the Balkans
According to military historian and Israeli Ambassador to the United States Michael Oren, four civilians died for every Serbian soldier killed by NATO, a civilian to combatant casualty ratio of 4:1.[5]
US drone strikes in Pakistan
According to a report by Daniel L. Byman of the Brookings Institution, United States drone strikes in Pakistan kill "10 or so civilians" for every militant killed, a civilian to combatant casualty ratio of 10:1. Byman argues that this ratio constitutes a humanitarian tragedy and creates dangerous political problems, including damage to the legitimacy of the Pakistani government and alienation of the Pakistani populace from America.[6]
Israel in the Israel-Gaza conflict
In 2002, the ratio of civilian deaths in Israel's military operations in the Gaza Strip was 1:1. By 2008, the Israel Defense Forces succeeded in lowering the ratio to 1:30.[4]
In the Gaza War, the IDF's ratio was 1:3 based on Israel's figures of 1,166 people killed including 709 combatants. According to the figures of B'Tselem, (1390 total people killed, 349 combatants, 248 Hamas policemen and 32 unknowns), the ratio was 3:2. Journalist Yaakov Katz of The Jerusalem Post attributes the low ratio to Israel’s investment in special weapons systems, including small smart bombs that minimize collateral damage, and an upscaled Israeli effort to warn civilians to flee areas and to divert missiles at the last moment if civilians entered a planned strike zone.[4]
In October 2009, Dershowitz stated that the ratio for Israel's campaign of targeted assassinations of terrorists stood at 1 civilian for every 28 terrorists. He argued that "this is the best ratio of any country in the world that is fighting asymmetrical warfare against terrorists who hide behind civilians. It is far better than the ratio achieved by Great Britain and the United States in Iraq or Afghanistan, where both nations employ targeted killings of terrorist leaders." He also quoted Col. Richard Kemp's statements on the Gaza War:[7]
[f]rom my knowledge of the IDF and from the extent to which I have been following the current operation, I don’t think there has ever been a time in the history of warfare when any army has made more efforts to reduce civilian casualties and deaths of innocent people than the IDF is doing today in Gaza... Hamas, the enemy they have been fighting, has been trained extensively by Iran and by Hezbollah, to fight among the people, to use the civilian population in Gaza as a human shield... Hamas factor in the uses of the population as a major part of their defensive plan. So even though as I say, Israel, the IDF, has taken enormous steps...to reduce civilian casualties, it is impossible, it is impossible to stop that happening when the enemy has been using civilians as human shields.
See also
References
- ^ Dershowitz, Alan (January 3, 2008). "Targeted Killing Is Working, So Why Is The Press Not Reporting It?". The Huffington Post.
- ^ A Grim Portrait of Civilian Deaths in Iraq, New York Times 22-10-2010
- ^ Mary Kaldor, New and old wars, Stanford University Press 1998, p. 9
- ^ a b c Yaakov Katz, Analysis: Lies, leaks, death tolls & statistics, Jerusalem Post 29-10-2010
- ^ UN report a victory for terror, Boston Globe 24-09-2009
- ^ Do Targeted Killings Work?, Brookings 14-07-2009
- ^ Alan Dershowitz, The Hypocrisy of "Universal Jurisdiction", Hudson Institute 06-10-2009