Military Review English Edition March-April 2015 | Page 71

ETHICS IN COMBAT

(AP Photo by Anja Niedringhaus)

A U.S. soldier arrives at the site where a suicide car bomber attacked a NATO convoy 16 May 2013 in Kabul, Afghanistan. Hizb-e-Islami, a
Muslim militant group, claimed responsibility for the early morning attack that killed many in the explosion and wounded several others.

Ethics, Combat, and a
Soldier’s Decision to
Kill
Chaplain (Maj.) Sean Wead, U.S. Army

O

n a lonely forward operating base in Iraq, an
18-year-old private, who five months before
worried only about whom he might take to
the prom, listens carefully to his commanding officer
as if his life depends on it. It does. The soldier’s mission
MILITARY REVIEW  March-April 2015

is to deliver critical supplies to units spread across his
region. The commander orders him not to stop on the
road for anything—even for children blocking the road.
The enemy uses them to obstruct the road, hoping soldiers’ moral sense will cause them to stop their vehicles,
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