A Tactical Ethic: Moral Conduct in the Insurgent Battlespace

Following the success of The Sheriff of Ramadi, which detailed the heroic actions of the Navy SEALs in Iraq's al-Anbar Province, Couch now examines the importance of battlefield ethics in effectively combating terrorists without losing the battle for the hearts of the local population. In his preface to this important new work on the ethical rules of engagement for the insurgent battlespace, highly regarded combat veteran, Dick Couch, warns that:

“It may at times seem like I'm speaking from my ethical high horse–some kind of a born-again, moral academic who has lost touch with the contemporary battlefield...but I believe the same mistakes we are making in Iraq and Afghanistan are the same mistakes we made forty years ago in Vietnam. This I know from firsthand experience. I was there and I made some of those mistakes. But Vietnam was a sideshow in the Cold War; we lost that battle but we won the war. If Iraq and Afghanistan slip away, these battles will put us on the brink of losing a war we dare not to lose.”

A Tactical Ethic is a critical look at the battlefield conduct of our ground-combat units—Marines, Army infantrymen, and Special Forces—fighting insurgents in Iraq and Afghanistan. From his unique and qualified perspective, Couch focuses on the sources and issues that can lead to wrong conduct on the battlefield, how it comes about, and what can be done to correct it. He examines the roles of command intent and rules of engagement, but his primary focus is on ethical conduct at the squad and platoon level. While A Tactical Ethic is a harsh critique of morally wrong combat tactics, Couch offers realistic measures to correct these potentially devastating errors.