There's a fascinating story in today's *Washington Post * about Marc Garlasco, the Defense Intelligence Agency spook now working for Human Rights Watch. Before, he helped pick targets for American aircraft to bomb. Today, he's calling attention to "the civilian toll of his previous work."
"I found myself standing at that crater, talking to a man about how his family was destroyed, how children were killed, and there was this bunny-rabbit toy covered in dust nearby, and it tore me in two," Garlasco said. "I had been a part of it, so it was a lot harder than I thought it would be. It really dawned on me that these aren't just nameless, faceless targets. This is a place where people are going to feel ramifications for a long time."
*Garlasco is uniquely suited to understand both sides of the air war debate: He knows what the bombs can do, and he knows the price of errant attacks. In the five years since he moved from targeter to human rights advocate, he has lobbied for greater deliberation in the military's use of air power. He has made it his mission to prevent the use of cluster munitions and has argued for smaller bombs that have less impact on surrounding areas -- like the bombs that the Air Force now uses in Iraq.
**As the U.S. military has significantly stepped up its use of airstrikes in Iraq and Afghanistan, Garlasco has tracked every bomb, noting their effectiveness and their potential for killing the innocent. The United States increased its use of aerial bombs in Iraq by more than 500 percent from 2006 to 2007 and dropped more than 20
times as many bombs on Afghanistan last year as it did just a few years ago.
**That increase, part of a strategy by U.S. commanders who want to attack enemies in areas they have controlled for years, has made
Garlasco's work all the more relevant. And his previous work on the
Pentagon's Joint Staff has given him a level of credibility and a voice that few human rights activists have. He can call up officers in the
Air Force's secret facility in Southeast Asia and can walk up to U.S.
command posts in Afghanistan to learn what is being done.
**Garlasco "knows more about airstrikes than anyone in the world who isn't in the military currently," said Colin Kahl, a professor of security studies at Georgetown University. "He knows enough about the professional military to know they make mistakes but that they try hard. When Marc says stuff is messed up, the military has to take it seriously. It's not some wing nut in a human rights group out to get the military."
*Military experts and human rights advocates said Garlasco's background is a mixed blessing: He can communicate well with both sides, yet he is simultaneously suspect at the Pentagon and in human rights circles.
