In 1993, when 12,500 United States servicemen attempted to help the citizens of Somalia by bringing food, medicine, and order in a time when warlords were the law and the common people were cannon fodder, morality seemed to have been both at its highest points and soon after in its lowest. The very same people who were cheering and celebrating during the day were later trying to kill the very same soldiers who were attempting to help them. Caught in the middle of Mogadishu, Somalia in what was supposed to be a simple policing action, the service members of the U.S. military had to fight the same people they were trying to save. The fighting itself, which was later depicted in the movie Black Hawk Down (2001) demonstrated the actions of the soldiers as well as those of the people of Somalia. As a result of the fighting, the United States and the other United Nations Countries which included Pakistan, Great Britain, and Canada decided to evacuate Somalia and to leave the people deal with their own problems. Morality, in this instance, can be described as a high morality as well as a very low morality, depending on whom and at what time it is being referred to.
To understand the many different perspectives in this incident and therefore understand the different views of morality, it is necessary to use Kant’s rules and views of morality to properly dissect the story. To begin, we must consider the initial value and moral attitudes of the United States servicemen who went to Somalia will be elaborated on. When they first arrived to the country, most of the American soldiers in Somalia believed in the cause that they were fighting for. They believed that they had the moral responsibility of helping those who could not help themselves. According to Kant’ ...