War Hero Rues a Decision Made in Afghanistan

From the Houston Chronicle:

War forces terrible decisions on young men. No one knows that better than Marcus Luttrell.

In June 2005, on a barren mountain high in the Taliban-infested Hindu Kush, Luttrell and three fellow Navy SEALs came together to talk. Their mission — to locate and possibly take out an important Taliban leader hiding in the Afghan village below — had just been compromised. Three goatherds, one a boy of about 14, had blundered onto their position. Sitting against a log under the watchful eyes of their captors, the Afghans clearly weren't happy to see the Americans. On the other hand, they were unarmed, technically civilians.

As about 100 goats milled about, Petty Officers Matthew Axelson, Danny Dietz and Luttrell, and their commander, Lt. Michael Murphy, discussed what to do. Having tried and failed earlier to make radio contact with their home base, they were on their own.

As they saw it, they had two options: kill the Afghans, or let them go and hope for the best. They let them go.

It's a decision Luttrell bitterly regrets.

Within hours, more than 100 Taliban fighters descended on the SEAL team. In the terrible gun battle that followed, Murphy, Axelson and Dietz died. A few miles away, a Taliban grenade brought down a rescue helicopter on its way to help the trapped men, killing all 16 aboard. It was the worst day in the 40-year history of the Navy SEALs.

***
The book is also an astonishing survival tale. Luttrell, half-dead, was taken in by Afghan villagers, many of whom probably had family ties to the Taliban. Having discussed the matter, they decided to grant the injured man lokhay warkawal, the protection of the village. They would be honor-bound, under this strict Pashtun tribal law, to protect Luttrell and not give him up.

"One of the lessons I learned was that there are good people everywhere," Luttrell said. "That village, Sabray, saved my life."

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What was the right thing to do on the mountain? In the book, Luttrell describes how the team talked it out, trying to find the best course of action. If they killed the men, they worried, the American media would get wind of it, and they'd be charged with murder.

Luttrell wondered what great commanders in the past — Napoleon, Omar Bradley, MacArthur — would have done.

"Would they have made the ice-cold military decision to execute these cats because they posed a clear and present danger to their men?"

On the other hand, he felt the promptings of "another soul. My Christian soul."

"Something kept whispering in the back of my mind, it would be wrong to execute these unarmed men in cold blood."

He reports that Axelson favored killing the goatherds. Dietz was neutral. Murphy and Luttrell voted to let them go.

"It was the stupidest, most southern-fried, lamebrained decision I ever made in my life," Luttrell writes. "I must have been out of my mind. I had actually cast a vote which I knew could sign our death warrant. I'd turned into a (expletive) liberal, a half-assed, no-logic nitwit, all heart, no brain, and the judgment of a jack rabbit.

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My Comments:
A must read about a true hero.

God bless the soldiers and sailors defending this country. Lord knows they get little enough credit when they do the right thing - and no acknowledgment of the sacrifice that often entails - from those who constantly carp about American human rights abuses in the War on Terror.