A Shot Not Taken:
Ethics and Political
Violence
Victor Asal & Marcus Schulzke
Univeristy at Albany
vasal@email.albany.edu
Note some of these slides are modified from slides
created by James Barry
"The end excuses any evil."
--Sophocles, "Electra" (409 B.C.)
 "No man is justified doing evil on the
grounds of expediency."
--Theodore Roosevelt, "The Strenuous Life"
(1900)
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 “Ethics is obedience to the
unenforceable.”
 Lord Moulton
Vocabulary: What is ethics?
The rules and standards of a culture or
group
 The branch of philosophy that deals with
issues of right and wrong
 An individual’s standards of behavior.
From Greek, ethos: character or nature
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adapted from James Barry Ethics
Presentation
A shot not taken…
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'It's a judgment call,'' Corporal McIntosh said. ''If the risks
outweigh the losses, then you don't take the shot.''
But in the heat of a firefight, both men conceded, when the
calculus often warps, a shot not taken in one set of
circumstances may suddenly present itself as a life-or-death
necessity. …
To illustrate, … ''There was one Iraqi soldier, and 25 women
and children,'' he said, ''I didn't take the shot.''
But more than once… he faced a different choice: one Iraqi
soldier standing among two or three civilians. He recalled one
such incident, in which he and other men in his unit opened
fire. He recalled watching one of the women standing near the
Iraqi soldier go down.
''I'm sorry,'' the sergeant said. ''But the chick was in the way
(Filkins 2003).''
…a different choice: one Iraqi soldier
standing among two or three civilians.
Are these soldiers ethical?
 Does it matter?
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An Ethical Dilemma
A real life situation
 Human needs at stake
 A clash of values
 Must make choice
 Can’t do everything
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adapted from James Barry Ethics
Presentation
Ethics involving life and death
decisions
Compressed time frame: requires
“acumen”
 High stakes create temptation to
compromise values
 “Us versus Them” attitude
 Closed decision making circles inhibit free
flow of advice
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adapted from James Barry Ethics
Presentation
Techniques for Ethical
Deliberation:
Character-based Duty-based
Ends-based
Aristotle
Immanuel Kant
John Stuart Mill
Virtue Ethics
Deontological
Utilitarianism
Command C – Night Ops - Falluja
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Operational orders for hamlet of Uja’h
 hamlet
of 200 + civilians, 30-40 terrorists.
 25 houses
 Terrorists assumed to be in three houses but unknown
which three
 Need to capture or kill terrorists They are coded HIGH
threat
 Can call in air strike
 Warning decision, degree of force and attack order at
commanders discretion
 at disposal two infantry companies, six tanks
 Limiting casualties to our troops high priority
As the commander..
What should you do?
 If civilians are killed did you act ethically?
 When does collateral damage cross the
line?
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You are the commander on the scene
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And a bomb has just gone off killing 12 injuring
six. When rescue personnel arrive a suicide
bomber attacks killing 30 more. One other
suicide bomber has been captured. There are
now several hundred people milling around and
headquarters has told you to secure the area
and make sure there are no more follow up
attacks. What means do you use to question the
captured bomber?
What is permissible in extracting
information?
Argentina 1970s
They were unconscious. we stripped them, and when the flight
commander gave the order, we opened the door and threw them
out, naked, one by one. That is the story, and nobody can deny it
(http://www.yendor.com/vanished/junta/scilingo.html)."
On April 24, an army sergeant, Victor Ibañez, revealed in an interview
published in La Prensa that death flights like those described by
Scilingo had departed regularly from El Campito, the clandestine
detention center in the Campo de Mayo army headquarters near
Buenos Aires. The victims were anaesthetized before being
boarded on the planes, which left under cover of darkness. "I
witnessed the interrogation of people who gave no information at all.
I saw a man die on the parrilla (literally, grill, an iron frame to which
victims of electric shock torture were tied) whom they were unable
to get anything from. And there is no way of bearing the physical
pain. If they said nothing it's because they knew nothing, This made
me sick, as well as a whole lot of other people who now repent what
they did (http://www.hrw.org/reports/2001/argentina/argen120103.htm)."
You are a waiter in a hotel in Argentina
in 1976 …
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The Commander of the Air force is coming
to stay in the hotel. You would like to help
bring down the government. You have
access to explosives. The commander is
staying in the top floor. You do not know
which room because the entire floor has
been booked. You…
What is permissible in resisting
oppression?
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Who is right?
 Wolin
 Hornstein,
 Honderich
 Note
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By RICHARD WOLIN http://www.ucl.ac.uk/~uctytho/Wolinhispiece.html or chronicle.com/article/Are-SuicideBombings-Morally/27421
Hornstein, Alison The Question That We Should Be Asking. http://www.newsweek.com/id/75254
Ted Honderich TERRORISM FOR HUMANITY http://www.ucl.ac.uk/~uctytho/terrforhum.html