While the Cold War-era military prioritized efficiency and effectiveness, the modern military emphasizes flexibility and adaptability. The contemporary environment is complicated and growing ever more complex. The Army must characterize its ethical training as moral education and implement systematic methods of reinforcement so that the profession interprets its ethic as a standard that each member aspires to be rather than simply do. In contrast, one cannot act morally without the prerequisite knowledge (ethical reasoning) that allows him or her to discern right action. One might gain moral knowledge without interest in pursuing moral action. 2 These are two deliberate, but not necessarily discrete, ends. The proper ends of the Army ethics program include moral action rather than merely moral knowledge. However, the Army must simultaneously improve its soldiers’ moral will-that is, their moral motivations. Recent military initiatives-such as the addition of an ethics block for professional military education and the Army’s Ready and Resilient Campaign-have led to a more comprehensive curriculum in ethical theory that seeks to improve soldiers’ moral reasoning skills. Similarly, the Army is unaware of its own blind spot in character development. Immediately, the squad leader recognizes the problem: the soldier is attending to a multifaceted end (general health) along only one relevant line of effort. Only after an honest counseling session with his squad leader does the soldier confess that he rewards himself with eight hundred calories worth of coffees, free donuts, and breakfast assortments after each session on the way to conduct hygiene. Each morning, he inspires his fellow soldiers by giving 100 percent during physical training. Imagine for a moment a purpose-driven soldier motivated to improve his fitness level. In its haste to respond, the Army repeatedly deploys its intellectual capacity toward solving the wrong problem.įailure to identify the root of a complex problem can sabotage even the best intentions. 1 While no one argues that those responsible were somehow unaware of their actions being wrong, such events commonly elicit immediate demands for further instruction and improvements in the ethical reasoning of all soldiers. Horrific war crimes, the sort portrayed in the film The Kill Team and the book Black Hearts: One Platoon’s Descent into Madness in Iraq’s Triangle of Death, and major transgressions by senior leaders that make for embarrassing headlines typically dominate the Army’s discourse on moral education. To deal with the extreme stress and moral ambiguity of such situations, the authors assert that high standards and methods for ethical decision making need to be inculcated in troops and their leaders through intensive education. Nicholas Gauthier provides security during a foot patrol 23 February 2009 near Forward Operating Base Mizan, Afghanistan. Gary Fordyce provide sniper overwatch and Sgt. Patrick Higgins ( foreground) of 1st Battalion, 4th Infantry Regiment surveys a village as Spc.
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