Operation Red Wing: Ethical Dilemmas

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Ethical Dilemma: Discovered by Unarmed Combatants During Operation Red Wing, a reconnaissance mission partaken by a group of U.S. Navy Seal Team 10, Lieutenant Michael P. Murphy and his team were spotted by three civilians. LT Murphy was immediately asked the most discomforting question of a young Leader’s career, “what do we do?” Considering the question in accordance with similar events and laws concerning the Law of Warfare, I often ask myself what I would do if I was behind enemy lines and my positioned was uncovered by unarmed civilians. I would allow the civilians to go free and immediately attempt to return to my operational outpost because killing innocent people is against the law, unethical, and counterproductive to the overall goal within the Global War on Terrorism. Michael Murphy knew for a …show more content…

(Fox News. 2006). U.S. Forces continue to attempt to win the hearts and minds of the civilians within warzones in order to keep them on our side. We maintain positive relations with locals by treating them respectively and keeping them safe. Harming or tying up innocent people contradicts our objective. Instead of helping to achieve our nation’s goal, by doing anything other than releasing civilians who have uncovered my position behind enemy line, I would be detracting from the end state or our overall mission. In closing, Operation Red Wings was fairly recent event which led caused people to wonder what they would do if they were in enemy territory and found by unarmed civilians. I personally would release the civilians because they are classified as unarmed combatants by the Geneva Convention. I argue that doing anything else would be criminal, immoral or unethical, and have a negative impact on the success towards this country’s strategy in winning the unconventional war we are fighting