Tactical Ethic

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 battle space, highly regarded combat veteran, Dick Couch, warns that:`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 side show 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 fighting insurgents in Iraq and Afghanistan. From his unique and qualified perspective, Couch focuses on the 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 the book is a harsh critique of morally wrong combat tactics, Couch offers realistic measures to correct these potentially devastating errors. About the AuthorDick Couch, while a platoon leader with SEAL Team One in 1970, led one of the only successful POW rescue operations of the Vietnam War. He retired from the Naval Reserve in 1997 with the rank of captain.