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Rumsfeld: New Rules for Non-lethal Combat Phil Brennan, NewsMaxWASHINGTON -- Top Pentagon officials this week have attempted to craft simple rules of engagement for combat troops in Iraq that would allow them to use non-lethal weapons to incapacitate civilians if it becomes a military necessity, U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld told the House Armed Services Committee Wednesday. "Absent a presidential waiver, in many instances our forces are allowed to shoot someone and kill them, but they are not allowed to use a non-lethal riot control agent," he said. Rules of engagement tell soldiers under what circumstances they may use their weapons or attack targets. "We are trying to find ways that non-lethal agents could be used within the law, within the treaty," Rumsfeld said. The Chemical Weapons Convention prohibits military use of chemicals and generally constrains signatories from using whole classes of non-lethal agents. The treaty does allow the use of non-lethal agents for law enforcement purposes. Non-lethal "chemical" weapons run the gamut from calmatives, sticky foams and slipping agents to corrosives and engine modifiers. "It is a very awkward situation, but there is a time when non-lethal riot agents are perfectly appropriate," Rumsfeld said. "It's difficult to write an ROE so a single human being knows what he can do ... "General (Richard) Myers (chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff) and I spent this week an hour to an hour and a half fashioning rules of engagement simple enough so people who have the task on front line ... can make a decision what they can do and can't do." Supposedly non-lethal weapons took center stage in global news last summer when Chechen terrorists held nearly 1,000 people hostage in a Moscow theater. The standoff was eventually ended when Russian forces gassed the building with a calmative agent designed to put everyone inside to sleep. More than 100 hostages died from the dose. War with Iraq raises the uncomfortable prospect that American troops might end up fighting armed Iraqi civilians in cities. The Washington Post reported Wednesday that Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein has armed 1 million Iraqi civilians with rifles and grenade launchers as a last line of defense against an American invasion. Myers said on Wednesday that such people would legally be considered combatants. "If they pick up arms they become combatants. They are combatants and they will be treated as such," Myers said. However, Myers has also warned that Saddam is gathering "human shields" to stand close to likely military targets in an attempt to dissuade the Air Force from bombing the sites. Human shields would not be considered combatants under Myers' strict definition. Central Command chief Gen. Tommy Franks "has a plan that addresses a host of very unpleasant contingencies, and there are a lot of things that can go wrong," Rumsfeld said, referring to the possible complications of urban combat in Iraq. Avoiding civilian casualties is not just a matter of conscience. A series of international laws and conventions going back to the Declaration of St. Petersburg in 1868 mandate that armed forces minimize harm to civilians during battles. Those principles were reinforced in the 1929 and 1949 Geneva Conventions, and addressed in many other laws and treaties including the CWC. Copyright 2003 by United Press International. All rights reserved.
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