Anecdote: during deployment when we arrive in country, we are given briefings about the latest tactics being employed in the area where we will be operating. When I went to Iraq in 2008 one of these briefings was about young girls wearing suicide vests, which was previously unprecedented.
The tactic consisted of taking a family hostage, and telling the girl that if she did not wear this vest and go to X place at Y time, her family would be killed. Then they would detonate the vest by remote.
We copped to it because sometimes we had jammers on which prevented the detonation, and one of the girls told us what happened. Of course, we didn’t have jammers everywhere. Then the calculus changes from whether we can take the hit in order to spare the child, to one child or many (suicide bombings target crowds).
The obvious wrongness of killing children does not change; nor that of allowing children to die. So one guy eats the sin, and the others feel ashamed for letting him.
I affirm Scharre’s interpretation.
Anecdote: during deployment when we arrive in country, we are given briefings about the latest tactics being employed in the area where we will be operating. When I went to Iraq in 2008 one of these briefings was about young girls wearing suicide vests, which was previously unprecedented.
The tactic consisted of taking a family hostage, and telling the girl that if she did not wear this vest and go to X place at Y time, her family would be killed. Then they would detonate the vest by remote.
We copped to it because sometimes we had jammers on which prevented the detonation, and one of the girls told us what happened. Of course, we didn’t have jammers everywhere. Then the calculus changes from whether we can take the hit in order to spare the child, to one child or many (suicide bombings target crowds).
The obvious wrongness of killing children does not change; nor that of allowing children to die. So one guy eats the sin, and the others feel ashamed for letting him.