“Danger Room has learned that an official with the Army’s Peacekeeping and Stability Operations Institute, Dwight Raymond, is drafting a manual on preventing civilian casualties. The manual, formally known as Army Tactics Techniques and Procedures 3-37.11, will provide practical advice for officers attempting to balance the difficulties of battling a shadowy insurgency while keeping civilians out of harm’s way. No such manual has ever existed before in the Army, or indeed across the entire military. Raymond anticipates publication by January 2012.

“If you have a short-term, short-sighted approach to conducting operations, and you try achieve mission success and you’re haphazard in terms of causing civilian casualties, that over long term jeopardizes your ability to accomplish the mission,” Raymond tells Danger Room. “That’s the key point.”

wired.com/dangerroom/