Talk:Ruthlessness/@comment-50.81.66.245-20150121090911/@comment-25587089-20150121121101

I would say you can. Since you cannot pick another ship, the card just doesn't come into effect. The "must" is to ensure, that the card can also affect friendly ships and cannot be circumvented. But I don't think it affects the attacking itself, or else the card text would read something along the lines of "you may only perform an attack, if the effect of this card can be resolved" at the end.