Infantry: Dealing With Civilians on the Battlefield

Dealing With Civilians on the Battlefield

August 25, 2006: What do you do with civilians on the battlefield? This has recently become such a serious problem that many military analysts are taking a new look at this ancient problem.

Civilians in the combat zone has been a problem for thousands of years, although it has become particularly troublesome in the last two centuries, as cheaper firearms made it possible for irregular fighters to hide among civilians and attack uniformed troops. It's this particular problem that caused the "laws of war" to include a provision for dealing with captured irregulars (armed, but without a uniform.) These guys are not treated as prisoners of war, but rather as outlaws, and are not given much help by the Geneva Conventions.

For as long as there have been wars, civilians have known that the best thing they can do is get out of the area. That's because enemy troops are usually not going to work hard to avoid harming potentially hostile civilians. Even friendly troops are going to be distracted, and not always able to assist civilians. However, with the development of mass media two centuries ago, there also came journalists who realized that reporting about "innocent civilians in a combat zone" made for great stories. Along with that came accusations that the enemy was deliberately abusing civilians. Often this was true, but it didn't have to be. Such accusations could be, and were, invented as needed. No ambitious journalist was ignorant of how easy it was to hammer out a convincing civilian atrocity story. Often, wartime governments even supervised the creation and distribution of such stories.

The enormous growth of mass media, especially the Internet, in the last few decades, has enabled anyone to publish atrocity stories. Digital video cameras are cheap, and there's always a wannabe movie director handy to help you stage some atrocity videos. Of late, however, Palestinians and Hizbollah have learned that cameras work both ways. But being found out is a minor inconvenience. Just keep on message, and keep spouting the accusations and images, and some of it will stick.

So what's a soldier to do? For American troops, several generations of practical experience has demonstrated that making nice to the civilians pays off in the long term. The U.S. Marines even wrote up their experience, in 1940, in the "Small Wars Manual." The marine experience in the early 20th century applies in any decade, in any war, no matter what the size. Even back then, the marines had to deal with accusations that they abused civilians. Today, the accusations travel faster, and come in the form of pictures and videos. The images are not always convincing, but technology is helping out with that.

The atrocity propaganda game has a downside, for the public you are addressing eventually tires of the deceptions, and begins to discount the once mighty media campaigns. There's not a lot you can do with lies, except develop media warfare techniques that weaken the enemy message, and make people aware that they are being played.

As for how to deal with civilians on the battlefield, practical advice on that point has been available for a long time. Not just the "Small Wars Manual," but also numerous reports and memoirs. Apparently defense contractors are, as you read this, mining those sources for their high priced reports on what to do about the situation.