Assessment Task- 1000 words limit
In this assessment task you will apply the jus in bello (JIB) principles to hypothetical cases to reach a conclusion about what
course of action would be morally licit in the circumstances described Below.
JIB Hypothetical 1: incoming!
The year is 2007 and you are attached to a US Marine Corps unit stationed in Kandahar province in Afghanistan- Your unit
patrols the region and one of your top priorities is to prevent sabotage to the electricity lines carrying power from Kajaki Dam to
Kandahar. The provision of electricity to the growing city has been deemed essential to building confidence in the Afghan
government’s ability to provide citizens with basic necessities- The Taliban understand this and do not want it to succeed- In
addition to attacks on the electricity grid, their forces launch brief mortar attacks on your base camp- They do this by quickly
setting up mortar tubes in populated areas within range of your base camp- The civilians in these areas either sympathise with
their aims or are too terrified of them to provide any useful intelligence- In any event, these mortar attacks are very brief. The
Taliban set up these light and easily transported weapons, fire off as many mortar shells as they can in 5 minutes and quickly
vacate the area- The base camp has secure dug outs and structures that are mostly resistant to light mortar fire- But the
periodic mortar barrages nonetheless pose a threat to anyone caught outside a shelter, as well as to vehicles and essential
material- Realistically your unit commander has three courses of action open to her.
She can decide to do nothing apart from enhancing existing shelters and staying on alert- No one has been killed yet, though
the situation is clearly dangerous- But it is both bad for morale and bad for public perceptions of the effectiveness of your unit to
just Sit there and ‘take it’-
Altematively, she can order night patrols into the populated areas surrounding the base camp in the hope of catching the mortar
teams or at least deterring them- However earlier in the campaign the
narrow streets and alley ways proved to be an ideal ground for ambush- Several soldiers in your unit were killed in these close
quarters fire-fights-
On the other hand, the unit has a AN/TPQ-37 Firefinder Weapons Locating System- The Firefinder is a radar unit that can
detect an incoming mortar shell, track its parabolic arc and quickly calculate the point of origin from which it was fired- In short,
the Firefinder can quickly tell you where the mortar team is positioned- The bad news is that the only unit that can take the
information from the Firefinderand return fire quickly enough is an M198 howitzer battery stationed 10 kilometres away. The
M198 fires a 155mm high explosive shell that causes causalities up to 100 metres from the point at which it lands- If you target a
Taliban mortar team firing from an alley between two houses, the M198’s counter-battery fire will almost certainly destroy both
houses as well as the mortar team-
Advise your commanding officer on the most ethical course of action open to her.
