During a press briefing in Laos on Wednesday, Lloyd Austin, the U.S. defense secretary, was asked if he worried that Israeli actions would “stain” his reputation.
“You’ve told us before about how you’ve really pushed Israel to follow humanitarian law in Gaza and how that’s been important to you, but we’ve all seen the imagery and videos, particularly of women, coming out of there and displaying civilian harm,” the reporter said.
“There was also a new report from the State Department that came out today of 500 cases, I think, of U.S. weapons being used against civilians,” the reporter added. “So I was wondering if you’re concerned Israel’s actions in that sense are going to reflect a stain on your legacy since it was under your leadership?”
“Yeah, you know, I don’t spend a lot of time worried about my legacy,” the defense secretary responded. “But if there were legacy issues associated with this, I would point to the fact that we moved urgently to support Israel in its efforts to defend itself. Moved heaven and earth, and we were able to do that because of all the lessons we learned in providing prompt support to Ukraine.”
Austin noted that he has “consistently emphasized that you can be effective and achieve your objectives and also protect humans or civilians in the battle space, as well.”
“I truly believe that, and that’s why we enacted an initiative in the Department of Defense that focuses on providing protection to civilians in the battle space,” he said. “We’ve done a lot there. As a matter of fact, our guys, our staff have really kind of created the gold standard for, you know, focusing on civilian harm in the battle space and making sure that we’re following the right procedures.”
“We’re learning from mistakes in the past and that sort of stuff,” he added.
