Depends On Which Topic You Choose And What Your Point Of View

Your Name

Instructor Name

Course Number

Date

Afghan Goatherds

Introduction:

The Afghan Goatherds incident is about the American reconnaissance mission which was failed for many reasons. The four American soldiers that were part of the mission and the sixteen fellow Americans that were in the sky had to lose their lives just apparently for the reason of a wrong decision taken at part of Luttrell. According to his book, he made this decision in sheer pressure of his feelings which were suggesting to be compassionate toward the unarmed civilian ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"fQDvE223","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(Sandel)","plainCitation":"(Sandel)","noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":1050,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/s8f0QVnP/items/B94JFGJW"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/s8f0QVnP/items/B94JFGJW"],"itemData":{"id":1050,"type":"book","title":"Justice: What's the right thing to do?","publisher":"Macmillan","source":"Google Scholar","title-short":"Justice","author":[{"family":"Sandel","given":"Michael J."}],"issued":{"date-parts":[["2010"]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (Sandel). Such cold blood (according to him) would bring nothing other than some worst feelings for his entire life.

There are many cases in which the army personnel have come under pressure of their inner feelings and avoided using force on the unarmed persons. The military law of most countries and the International humanitarian law also suggests the same measures. But how they validate what happened, in this case, remains still a question mark. This debate also than prolongs toward revisiting the roles of ethics in the military code of conduct. Sandel also appears to be of the same opinion that humanitarian causes and ethics influence the decision-making process in individual cases and might result in notable loss or defame in the future.

There are many questions that have not been paid attention toward. For example, there might be a chance that the Taliban themselves got to know about the presence of American soldiers and the goatherds have not played their part. Similarly, there are chances that the situation might be different from how exactly it has been mentioned in the incident. The preceding paragraphs will analyze such contexts.

Thesis Statement: Considering the present case study, it appears viable to argue that military code of conducts must be made more tailored by adapting to the situational circumstances, and must not be applicable generally in every circumstance.

Analysis:

Considering the arguments presented by Wilson, it appears that no Commander or (any person affiliated to the military in any way) is not supposed to show restraint in such circumstances ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"ku4DxWHB","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(Wilson)","plainCitation":"(Wilson)","noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":1056,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/s8f0QVnP/items/EZN2U8K9"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/s8f0QVnP/items/EZN2U8K9"],"itemData":{"id":1056,"type":"chapter","title":"An ethics curriculum for an evolving army","container-title":"Ethics education in the military","publisher":"Routledge","page":"45–56","source":"Google Scholar","author":[{"family":"Wilson","given":"Jeffrey"}],"issued":{"date-parts":[["2017"]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (Wilson). Similarly, this viewpoint is shared by W. Johnson and S. Johnson, who argues that extreme religious sentiments present in the soldiers and in some cases among the hierarchy in the military, sometimes places the soldiers in a difficult situation ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"3CaIeivO","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(Johnson and Johnson)","plainCitation":"(Johnson and Johnson)","noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":1058,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/s8f0QVnP/items/A5RWXCS9"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/s8f0QVnP/items/A5RWXCS9"],"itemData":{"id":1058,"type":"chapter","title":"Unavoidable and mandated multiple relationships in military settings","container-title":"Multiple Relationships in Psychotherapy and Counseling","publisher":"Routledge","page":"61–72","source":"Google Scholar","author":[{"family":"Johnson","given":"W. Brad"},{"family":"Johnson","given":"Shannon J."}],"issued":{"date-parts":[["2016"]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (Johnson and Johnson). In the case of Afghan Goatherds, the situation was not confronting, the threat was not revealing and the opposite side was unarmed, it shows that maximum restraint shown by the Luttrell was baseless. The circumstances might be either he has to take the decision hurriedly or some facts have been presented disturbingly.

The Afghan Goatherds case is also a little different if viewed in a purely military perspective. For example, the border region of Afghanistan and Pakistan has long remained an area of strategic importance and important with regard to the security situation. The Luttrell must have had a thorough analysis of the situation first (which anyone else might have done before), secondly, the goatherds are a regular passerby in such areas, this gives birth to the third and last perspective that there remained high chances for such people to be used as agents by the Afghan Taliban. These all perspective leaves the chances of miscalculation and thorough negligence on part of the American soldiers.

William and Hunt have presented a similar case of World War I, which is much similar to this. Although they have refrained from exact specifying the belligerents, after presenting their case, he has argued that ethics treat differently if used in the battlefield ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"S6gwcshV","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(Williams-Jones et al.)","plainCitation":"(Williams-Jones et al.)","noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":1062,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/s8f0QVnP/items/TKL8MWTX"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/s8f0QVnP/items/TKL8MWTX"],"itemData":{"id":1062,"type":"article-journal","title":"Ethics in the field: the experiences of canadian military healthcare professionals","container-title":"Ethics and the Armed Forces/Ethik und Militär","page":"31–6","source":"Google Scholar","title-short":"Ethics in the field","author":[{"family":"Williams-Jones","given":"Bryn"},{"family":"Laat","given":"Sonya","non-dropping-particle":"de"},{"family":"Hunt","given":"Matthew"},{"family":"Rochon","given":"Christiane"},{"family":"Okhowat","given":"Ali"},{"family":"Schwartz","given":"Lisa"},{"family":"Horning","given":"Jill"}],"issued":{"date-parts":[["2015"]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (Williams-Jones et al.). Such all situation leaves the space for thinking differently to what is mentioned in the story. The analysis of the American military code of conduct also suggests that it is not that much consistent with the International norms of the military conductor as suggested by the International humanitarian laws ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"8G4CuXAY","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(Osiel)","plainCitation":"(Osiel)","noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":1053,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/s8f0QVnP/items/NXWNPCZC"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/s8f0QVnP/items/NXWNPCZC"],"itemData":{"id":1053,"type":"book","title":"Obeying orders: atrocity, military discipline and the law of war","publisher":"Routledge","source":"Google Scholar","title-short":"Obeying orders","author":[{"family":"Osiel","given":"Mark J."}],"issued":{"date-parts":[["2017"]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (Osiel). This also goes in opposition to how things have been presented by the writer in his book.

Conclusion:

A thorough analysis of the situation presented by the author titled "the Afghan Goatherds" suggests that the human loss, the logistic loss, and the defamation should all be rested over the shoulders of Luttrell who was supposed to look after the lives of his subordinates. The literature referred in the above paragraphs also suggests that gross negligence is apparent on part of Luttrell. In such circumstance, Luttrell should have decided otherwise that could have made them successful in the reconnaissance mission. But unfortunately, things unpacked in the worst manner possible and resulted in the loss of around nineteen people.

The thesis presented in this essay therefore remains substantive and conforms to the early notion that Luttrell's decision-making abilities remained under the sheer pressure of religious notions, that's why he has painted himself as thinking according to the Christian faith. This, therefore, leaves the space to think that military code of ethics and military training both (till that time) had a significant impact of religious notions. Such religious notions than results in higher costs as what happened on the Afghan- Pakistan border. This, therefore, leaves the space to revisit the military code of ethics and how these all are being imparted in soldiers and officers of different ranks.

The Afghan Goatherds, on one hand, presents the idea that how ethics and humanitarian aspects act as distorting causes in military one side and results in losses on another side. There are many studies which suggest that employment of ethical standards are used as a cover tactic to justify the faulty handling of strategic decision making. Process in events of crucial importance. This could also be true for the Afghan Goatherds case.

Works Cited:

ADDIN ZOTERO_BIBL {"uncited":[],"omitted":[],"custom":[]} CSL_BIBLIOGRAPHY Johnson, W. Brad, and Shannon J. Johnson. “Unavoidable and Mandated Multiple Relationships in Military Settings.” Multiple Relationships in Psychotherapy and Counseling, Routledge, 2016, pp. 61–72.

Osiel, Mark J. Obeying Orders: Atrocity, Military Discipline and the Law of War. Routledge, 2017.

Sandel, Michael J. Justice: What’s the Right Thing to Do? Macmillan, 2010.

Williams-Jones, Bryn, et al. “Ethics in the Field: The Experiences of Canadian Military Healthcare Professionals.” Ethics and the Armed Forces/Ethik Und Militär, 2015, pp. 31–6.

Wilson, Jeffrey. “An Ethics Curriculum for an Evolving Army.” Ethics Education in the Military, Routledge, 2017, pp. 45–56.