The principle of utility involves maximizing happiness as a desirable outcome of decisions. Although it does not get directly said, there is an inverse intention to minimize the undesirable outcome of disaster. Utilitarian decisions are directed toward outcomes—that is, the consequences of decisions. The Olympic hostage situation was a high-tension moment, full of dangerous surprises and strategies to deal with the situation that did not work out for the best. Among the strategies was the idea to kill the leader of the terrorists so as to disrupt the terrorist plot and to allow a good outcome in which the hostages would be saved. In the situation it was also entirely possible that a terrible outcome might occur in which all would die. The situation was an emergency. The German legal system might eventually take the terrorists and their leader to trial, but first there was the need to end the hostage situation. The account in our text ends with, “But it was the lesser of two evils.” As utilitarian ethicists this week, how shall we reason through to the decision of the law enforcement authorities at the 1972 Munich Olympics?
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In the Munich terrorist situation the police were faced with a difficult situation. Due to the climate of the time everyone could imagine what would happen to the hostages if the terrorist were allowed to leave with them, this ending was not acceptable. The police already knew that the terrorist were willing to kill since they had already killed some of the Olympic team members that resisted. Since negotiations failed and the ambush attempts failed along the way to the final shootout, the police felt that this was truly the final attempt at a rescue.
The German police were not really equipped and trained to handle this hostage situation, but they did what they could do. We have the luxury of questioning how this situation was handled, but back then the police had to make decisions with what information they had and live with the results. Due to this terrorist situation the German police saw the need to establish the anti-terrorism group GSG 9, so that could be a take away from this situation.