Luttrell examines weighty ethical dilemmas that soldiers confront in contemporary combat scenarios. A pivotal moment arises when Luttrell and his Navy SEAL team confront an agonizing decision. They have the choice to either eliminate a group of Afghan goat herders who have inadvertently discovered their concealed position, or to let them go and gamble on the mission’s exposure. This dilemma is a convergence of ethics, duty, and consequence.

Luttrell plunges into the convoluted workings of what military personnel term “ROE,” or “Rules of Engagement.” These rules are meant to guide soldiers in making ethical decisions during warfare. Luttrell highlights how these guidelines often dissolve into moral ambiguity when tested in combat. The SEALs’ decision-making process becomes a microcosm of ethical dilemmas faced by military forces engaged in asymmetric warfare against non-state actors. Luttrell conveys how rules and guidelines can seem insufficient when one is making a split-second choice that could result in death—both the deaths of himself and his fellow SEALs and potentially innocent civilians.

Luttrell refrains from spoon-feeding solutions to these dilemmas, while at the same time conveying their heft. He opens a window into the complex ethical environment of modern warfare, an arena where notions of right and wrong are continuously blurred and distorted.