FODPlod:
What position are you holding when you make this decision that contravenes the Hague Convention and leaves you open to indictment for war crimes? The Prime Minister, the C-in-C, the CO of the ship or the sailor with his finger on the trigger who is "just obeying orders"?
Clearly I would have to be the PM...
I take it you are all for using civilians as shields for the military then. Because, by allowing these hypothetical, (because, after all, this is what they are in this conversation), ten passenger ferries who are traveling with civilians aboard as a group at high speed towards sovereign territory refusing to acknowledge even when fired upon that is exactly what you are doing.
Why do you believe it to be anyone but the foreign government's responsibility if their civilians die when they are used as shields for their military?