Lone Survivor_ The Eyewitness Account of Operation Redwing and the Lost Heroes of SEAL Team 10 ( PDFDrive )

back home which reads, ‘Navy SEALs Under Suspicion.’
“Number three, we turn ’em loose, and still get the hell out, in case the
Taliban come looking.”
He stared at us. I can remember it just like it was yesterday. Axe said firmly,
“We’re not murderers. No matter what we do. We’re on active duty behind
enemy lines, sent here by our senior commanders. We have a right to do
everything we can to save our own lives. The military decision is obvious. To
turn them loose would be wrong.”
If this came to a vote, as it might, Axe was going to recommend the
execution of the three Afghans. And in my soul, I knew he was right. We could
not possibly turn them loose. But my trouble is, I have another soul. My
Christian soul. And it was crowding in on me. Something kept whispering in the
back of my mind, it would be wrong to execute these unarmed men in cold
blood. And the idea of doing that and then covering our tracks and slinking away
like criminals, denying everything, would make it more wrong.
To be honest, I’d have been happier to stand ’em up and shoot them right out
in front. And then leave them. They’d just be three guys who’d found
themselves in the wrong place at the wrong time. Casualties of war. And we’d
just have to defend ourselves when our own media and politicians back in the
U.S.A. tried to hang us on a murder charge.
None of us liked the sneaky options. I could tell that. I guess all four of us
were Christians, and if we were thinking like ordinary law-abiding U.S. citizens,
we would find it very hard to carry out the imperative military decision, the
overriding one, the decision any great commander would have made: these guys
can never leave this place alive. The possible consequences of that were
unacceptable. Militarily.
Lieutenant Murphy said, “Axe?”
“No choice.” We all knew what he meant.
“Danny?”
“As before. I don’t give a shit what you decide. Just tell me what to do.”
“Marcus?”
“I don’t know, Mikey.”
“Well, let me tell you one more time. If we kill these guys we have to be
straight about it. Report what we did. We can’t sneak around this. Just so you all
understand, their bodies will be found, the Taliban will use it to the max. They’ll
get it in the papers, and the U.S. liberal media will attack us without mercy. We
will almost certainly be charged with murder. I don’t know how you guys feel