To kill or not to kill, that is the question.

Talking to a special forces soldier, a real warrior, the conversation turned to a situation involving a mission in Afghanistan where while he and three members of his team were approaching their target in a remote hut on a hillside containing high level leaders of a terrorist cell that they were tasked with eliminating. Not only the leaders, but their security detail. It was a high stakes mission, and if it went sideways, they could be in serious trouble. They were in enemy territory with no backup, only their training and skills to help them succeed . The targets were bad people, responsible for killing hundreds of people, civilian and military. And it was a war, so the operation was legal and necessary to prevent more killings. None of that was in doubt. It was hot, very hot. The ground was rocky, and the grass was tall and brown and they crept closer and closer to the hut. They spotted two sentries on guard out side the hut, and a third sitting under a tree. They were armed with AK 47 rifles, They silently planned their approach by giving hand signals to each other. They all knew what to do. Take out the sentries silently and by hand, with knives. They were trained for this, they were deadly killers. They crept forward, seperating to close in on their targets. Just then, a herd of goats crossed in front of them, with a young boy carrying a stick. The herder. Doing his job. He was oblivious to the concealed soldiers in the bush through which he was walking, until he saw one of them, and was about to scream with fright and alert the sentries down by the hut. Quickly, the soldier reared up and and covered his mouth to prevent him from screaming, and wrestled him to the ground, overwhelming his slight body with his heavy muscular body. A team mate crawled over to help him, and they tied him up and gagged him. They didn’t want to hurt him, or knock him unconscious. Once he was imobilized, one soldier stayed with him while the other crawled over to the team leader for instructions. “What should we do with him. He looks about 13, an innocent boy. He’s terrified”.the soldier whispered into the team leader’s ear. “You have to kill him. We can’t afford to let him escape and spread the alarm. We still have to complete our mission and get out of here.” The team leader replied. “ he’s a casualty of war.”

”no, no, no. We can tie him up better and stronger than we have done, we can even knock him out. It’s not perfect, but he will still be alive. We can get out of here and be miles away before he comes to” the soldier said.

“No, the mission comes first, and we come next. We can’t risk him alerting the village and telling how many we are” the team leader said. “ let’s finish the job, and then come back to the boy” tThe team leader compromised.

‘The men started crawling forward again, and quickly reached their targets and outside the hut and under the tree, and silently killed all three sentries. Then, in a rush, they burst into the hut and shot everyone in the room. The three leaders, who they identified visually from the photographs they had studied in preparation of the mission, and the four security detail protecting them. Their silenced weapons didn’t make much noise inside the hut, and none outside at all. The security detail didn’t get a shot off before they died. The mission was a success.

The team gathered all the papers on the table that the terrorists were pouring over, and search the bodies for any intelligence, phones, anything useful, and ran out of the hut and back to the unconscious boy and started their exfiltration. When they got to the boy, he was still unconscious, and so the team leader made a snap decision and decided to leave the boy tied up. Eventually he would be found and rescued. He asked the other three mates what they thought, and the consensus was unanimous. Leave him. Immediately, they took of running at a steady pace, eating up the miles. They had a long way to go.

‘Hours later, and many miles, pickup trucks started to appear, and their progress slowed, as they began to move covertly. Very quickly, their presence was discovered, and a firefight was started. A running battle was initiated, with the special forces team shooting as they ran, and ducked and weaved. They reached the extraction point, retrieved the hidden radio, and broadcast their status and condition. A helicopter was dispatched for a hot extraction. Befor it arrived, three of his men dead, and the leader wounded,but still fighting. The helicopter came in firing, and scooped him up. The three dead soldiers were left behind for another day. Two days later another team went in and recovered the bodies. One soldier was propped up under a tree, shell casings all around him. He fought on after the extraction, after he was left behind. And after an investigation, it seemed that the boy revived got free from his binding, and walked back to the village. That was why the terror cell was able to locate the special force kill team. Not only was the leader dishonorably discharged for leaving a man behind, but also for getting three men killed because he didn’t kill the boy And putting the mission at risk. Hard decisions have to be made. War is not good.