Pashtunwali-.
The 2013 movie, “Lone Survivor” dramatizes the failed United States Navy SEALs counter-insurgent mission Operation Red Wings, during which a four-man reconnaissance and surveillance team was tasked to track down and kill Taliban leader Ahmad Shah. The operation doesn’t get off the ground as one shepherd and two goat herders happen upon the Seals. As one of the Seals says, “we have three choices, 1) we let the three go to the village below where the Taliban are, this will give us about one hour to go higher up in the hills; 2) we tie them up and leave them here, and they freeze to death or get eaten by wolves; or 3) we eliminate them. The soldiers debate “rules of war” which state that unarmed civilians should not be killed. Finally the officer in charge says we let them go, move to the top of the hill, where we can call in communications to our base. Unfortunately the communications system does not work and the SEALs are engaged by the Taliban, in which three out of four are killed. The fourth SEAL, Marcus Luttrell, somehow manages to get to a lake where there are some villagers getting water. They determine to bring Luttrell back to their village. When four Taliban come to kill Luttrell the villagers do not let this happen. Luttrell sends a message via one of the villagers to an American base. Just as the Taliban have come to destroy the village, the Americans show up and Lutrell is whisked away to a base. At the end of this story, the credits define the Afghani word Pashtunwali, a 2000 year old code which includes protecting one from one’s enemies. The credits show photos of the men who were killed and also a photo of Luttrell and the Afghani villager who made the decision to protect him.
As I watched this movie, for the second time, the soldier’s debate about what to do with the shepherd and goat herders seemed very poignant. Given that war is immoral, how does morality come into play on the battle field? Is it an oxy-moron to bring morality into play when people are focused on killing one another? Letting the shepherd and goat herders go would ultimately jeopardize Operation Red Wings resulting in the death of the Seals. But killing civilians, if the SEALs had lived, would have put them in prison. Especially in the heat of battle, when people are making life or death decisions, does morality stand a chance? Additionally, morality may come down to a person’s religious and/or other beliefs about the sanctity of life and how “right” one thinks their side is. (Recently, the killing of medical staff representing Doctors Without Borders in Afghanistan resulted in an apology from US President Obama. This was a moral decision by Obama as how often does anyone apologize for killing another in a war zone?)
Another poignant part of the film was Pashtunwali, which comes down to morals for this particular group of people. The Afghani people, living in a war zone, are caught between the government and rebels and other countries playing politics. In war there isn’t much caring for people. This is obvious when looking at the current world situation. Those in power want to maintain this and will do so at any cost, killing whomever gets in their way. If survivors must leave impacting other countries it doesn’t matter. If land is laid to waste and children starve there are few concerns as long as those in power keep it this way.
“Pashtunwali promotes self-respect, independence, justice, hospitality, love, forgiveness, revenge and tolerance toward all (especially to strangers or guests).” Nothing is perfect (revenge and justice) but the hospitality and tolerance parts really showed up in Lone Survivor. As Luttrell, kept asking the villagers why are you helping me? This resonated within me. Knowing that the Taliban would destroy their village, why would villagers help an American soldier? This comes back to a sense of morality.
How do we bring morality into a highly immoral world? This is all about perspective and experience. Look at ISIL, Syria, Russia, US, India, China…..morality comes down to how a society gets others to think; it’s about how we were raised. It seems that killing, raping, etc. would be considered highly immoral. Deep down we know this. But violence against others is a constant.
Lone Survivor isn’t easy to watch and it is a bit Hollywood, e.g. the Navy SEALs seems to kill an inordinate number of Taliban. However, the questions the movie raises are well worth the watch.
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