There is great scepticism in some quarters regarding the legitimacy of a military professional’s relying on his or her religious beliefs to make command decisions. This is a terrific topic for reflection, debate and reasoned disagreement. The following essay reflects on battlefield decisions that took seriously moral considerations in war, including moral obligations--even love--toward the enemy. But can love for the enemy jeopardize one's love for their own comrades in arms and a commanders duty toward subordinates and the mission? How can love walk the battlefield? 

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Love and Faith at War: Reflections on a Platoon Commander in Fallujah

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Reflection on the following prompts as you prepare for class:

1. Love and Faith In Fallujah offers a religiously - and specifically Christian - grounded basis for and understanding of human dignity. At the same time, it argues that the argument can be universalized and substantiated by moral philosophy and political and legal thought. How does the basis it argues for compare or contrast with the views in the Crash Course video from Monday?
2. Eberle takes care to avoid a caricature of Lt. Strabbing that would portray him as " a blinkered fanatic mindlessly pursuing a religious agenda regardless of the cost and impervious to rational deliberation." Does he succeed? How can Strabbing's decision be grounded in rational deliberation? How could it result from the careful application of the moral deliberation road map? 
3. It's clear that as a commander you will have the duty to protect your subordinates physical wellbeing. While you might have to risk spending the lives of your subordinates, you should never risk merely wasting them. In light of moral injury, touched on in this essay and expounded upon later in the course, it becomes clear that protecting your subordinates morally and spiritually can be just as critical in protecting them physically. In what ways? In what ways is moral safety ultimately the same thing as physical safety? How do you balance the physical and moral risks any warfighter faces?