Abandoned by his platoon, a patriotic soldier befriends a young Muslim girl and must choose between protecting her or helping his team eradicate her village.

I'm not seeing the big moral dilemma between saving a girl's life and slaughtering a village of innocent civilians. The harder the choices the protagonist faces, the better your story. This just seems like a no-brainer, no matter how patriotic he might be.

Patriotic soldier is a goody-two-shoes. If he has a character flaw or moral weakness, we may find sympathy and decide to turn the page.

Building to an agonizing moral dilemma is a great story telling technique, but how can it be that the protagonist is "abandoned by his platoon" while concurrently "helping his team to eradicate"?