Dire situations

Earlier in the week discussing the topic of the spelunkers got me thinking of other examples of dire situations that individuals were in however, their taking the life of an individual was justified and they were not punished. This one particular example stuck out the most for me:
In February 2005, an Italian journalist was taken hostage while reporting in Iraq and was held for a month. One of the top ranking intelligence officials of the Italian government at the time would travel to Iraq in order to help negotiate the release of the journalist. At the same time US troops in Iraq were falling victim to suicide bombers that would load their vehicles with explosives and attempt to run checkpoints that US forces would be occupying. In order to protect the lives of our forces, the rules of engagement (ROE) stated that any vehicle that US forces felt posed a potential threat; they were allowed to open fire on the vehicle if the driver would not respond to several warning shots. On the evening of March 4th, 2005, the Italian was released from her capturer’s custody. The intelligence officer that had arranged her for her release drove the vehicle that would extract her and flee with her to the Baghdad airport. While in route to the airport, the vehicle was moving at a high rate of speed as it came upon a checkpoint that was being run by US forces. US soldiers saw the vehicle approaching at a high rate of speed and fired several warning shots into the air in an attempt to get the vehicle to stop. However, the driver did not heed these warning shots and the soldiers opened fire on the vehicle which would result in killing the driver and wounding the journalist who was in the backseat. After an investigation conducted by the US military, all pending charges were eventually dropped against the soldier that initiated the engagement on the vehicle.
In this case as well I agree that the soldier who opened fire on the vehicle should not have faced any legal repercussions because the situation at the time was considered dire. Had he not have fired on the vehicle and it had been a suicide bomber, many soldiers could have been wounded or even killed. Society ends up making rules that help protect the majority. It also allows for different rules for special circumstances. In this case, the ROE’s were the acceptable rules or laws that were followed in a dire situation. This is similar to the case of the trapped explorers who were also in a dire circumstance who ended up taking the life of one person to ensure the survival of the rest.