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Philosophy of deontologicalism
Philosophy of deontologicalism
Army ethical decision making
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The kind of theory I will be using to approach the question, should one obey and unjust or illegal orders given by one’s military superiors? Using Philosophers Kant principles on deontological theory that emphasis on the relationship between duty and the morality of human. I will explain the action a soldier may or may not be responsible for based on morals and ethics. Are military personal actions be based on their own ethical standers or can you deem their action ethical correct because their actions are not their own will but the will of their superiors. I will include other Philosophers thoughts on this matter. A large investigation occurred in 2005. Military man and women were accused of inhumanly missed treated and torturing prisoners of war. …show more content…
Department of Defense should conduct a thorough investigation of the allegations made in this report at all levels of the chain of command. Such an investigation must not be limited to lower-ranking enlisted personnel and officers, but must include higher-ranking officers and civilian officials linked to policies that directed, encouraged or tolerated such abuse. Legal measures will be taken to ensure that soldiers who bring forward credible allegations of detainee abuse are not in any way punished for their actions. Justify the Means The U.S. Attorney General appoint a special counsel to investigate any U.S. officials misconduct no matter the rank or position-who have participated in illegal ordered of commands responsibility for war crimes or torture, or other prohibited ill-treatment against detainees in U.S. custody will be held accountable for. This legislation covered not only military units but also civilian agencies involved in interrogations.
The soldiers at My Lai were in an environment conducive to obeying orders. They have been trained to follow the orders of their commanders; respect for authority is weighed heavily upon. It is hard for them to disobey because they have been integrated into the social structure of the military and when in the middle of a war they would have nowhere to turn if they choose to disobey the orders of their commanders. The consequences of disobedience for them could be sent to death. A classic example of the power of authoritative factors is provided by Stanley Milgram’s
The motion picture A Few Good Men challenges the question of why Marines obey their superiors’ orders without hesitation. The film illustrates a story about two Marines, Lance Corporal Harold W. Dawson and Private First Class Louden Downey charged for the murder of Private First Class William T. Santiago. Lieutenant Daniel Kaffee, who is known to be lackadaisical and originally considers offering a plea bargain in order to curtail Dawson’s and Downey’s sentence, finds himself fighting for the freedom of the Marines; their argument: they simply followed the orders given for a “Code Red”. The question of why people follow any order given has attracted much speculation from the world of psychology. Stanley Milgram, a Yale psychologist, conducted an experiment in which randomly selected students were asked to deliver “shocks” to an unknown subject when he or she answered a question wrong. In his article, “The Perils of Obedience”, Milgram concludes anyone will follow an order with the proviso that it is given by an authoritative figure. Two more psychologists that have been attracted to the question of obedience are Herbert C. Kelman, a professor at Harvard University, and V. Lee Hamilton, a professor at the University of Maryland. In their piece, Kelman and Hamilton discuss the possibilities of why the soldiers of Charlie Company slaughtered innocent old men, women, and children. The Marines from the film obeyed the ordered “Code Red” because of how they were trained, the circumstances that were presented in Guantanamo Bay, and they were simply performing their job.
An officer in the military will listen to the officers ranking higher than him more readily than someone of a lower rank. It does not matter whether the rank is by a title such as in a military situation or in the way someone is perceived to be, like in Zimbardo and Milgram’s experiments. In the film A Few Good Men there is one puzzling statement near the end of the movie said by Private Louden Downey. After the sentencing Downey loudly questions Lieutenant Commanders Galloway and Kaffee as to why Dawson and Downey were still found guilty of “conduct unbecoming of United States marines”. He said “what did we do wrong? We did nothing wrong!” Private Downey was referring to the fact that he is a marine, he gets an order and he follows it, with no questions asked. The puzzling idea that those following orders because it was an order given by someone of a higher rank means that Dawson and Downey are not responsible for their actions. Is anyone responsible for their actions and the consequences of those actions if they were “just following orders?” The ability to tell someone what to do and to have them listen to your command is determined by your status relative to theirs.
The Army currently has an ethical code ebodied in the Army Values, which provides guidance to the individual and the organization. These values are universal across the Army regardless of an individual’s personal background or religious morals. Professional Military Education schools teach the Army Ethic and evaluation reports for leaders affirm this ethic. The Army punishes individuals, especially leaders, who violate this code. The Army administratively punishes Soldiers who do not adhere to this code, and the severity of punishment increases with rank. One recent and highly visible example of this is former General Petraeus’s adultery and the subsequent professional sanctions he experienced. The Army gr...
The circumstance of immoral orders is understandable, but a soldier should still meet his or her given instructions. The keys to a soldier's system are the policy letters and army regulations that dictate every given bit of information on the army and its moral history. Within each article and sub-article, the information is pertinent to the success of a soldier and shares the history as well. This can provide lessons to those who instruct other soldiers.
United States Military Officers from all services are trained in military tactics, standards, and values. One of the most important lesson they are taught is the health and welfare of their troops. Commanding Officers (COs) hold the lives of thousands of service men and women in their hands, and their decisions directly affect the safety and well-being of subordinates. The moral dilemma to risk the lives of many to save a few, or its opposite, to save the lives of many by sacrificing the lives of a few, is one of the toughest situations for a CO to be in, and one of the toughest decisions to make. The CO has to look at the big picture and the long-term effects of his decisions, and in this scenario the
Friedman goes on to write that the United States has been very lax when it comes to punishing those United States officials and officers in charge during the time that prisoners of war have been tortured and killed. Friedman calls for President Bush and the United States government to “Just find out who were the cabinet, C.I.A. and military officers on whose watch these 26 homicides occurred and fire them. That will do more to improve America's image in the Arab-Muslim world than any ad campaign, which will be useless if this sort of prisoner abuse is shrugged off.”
Created by Jake Tapper and Jethro Mullen, ‘U.S. Military Accused of Telling Soldiers to Overlook Afghan Abuse of Boys.’ The article was published on cnn news website. It contains of two soldiers were accused of attacking the attacker on sexually abusing a afghan boy. Telling how, why they couldn’t do anything in previous rape cases.
After concluding that many World War II criminals blamed their actions on obedience, a scientist named Stanley Milgram performed an experiment. The experiment was to test a regular man’s willingness to follow orders, even if it meant to possibly kill someone. With a little encouragement from the authoritative position, “The study revealed that two-thirds of the time, the participant was willing to deliver potentially life-threatening shocks… simply because they were receiving orders from an authority figure” (Doc A). This shows how the majority of people will do anything, under two conditions, if they have an overlooking figure encouraging them what to do, and as long as they are not the ones taking the blame for their actions. It is quite interesting that a little persistent nudge can go a long way, especially if the subjects are not being held accounted for their actions. Additionally, Nazi soldiers were notorious for their cruelty, and their reasoning for that: they were just following orders. The Wehrmacht Oath of Loyalty forces soldiers to state that they, “shall render unconditional obedience to Adolf Hitler” and every soldier should, “give [their] life for this oath” (Doc D). The Nazi soldiers lived by this oath, and if anyone of them were to disobey Hitler or any order under authoritative command, they would be severely punished. Making this oath forces soldiers to
Whether one should obey orders when they come in conflict with what is morally correct is a question old almost as the civilization itself. This concept was discussed by philosophers, written about by writers, studied by psychologists, and it was a topic of the most important series of experiments in history of social psychology. The experiments were conducted by Stanley Milgram between 1964 and 1975. The purpose of Milgram’s experiment was to determine to what extent would subjects referred to as “teachers” be willing to comply with orders of authority, even if it meant imposing harsh bodily harm on subjects referred to as “learners”.
I feel that this article should be read by anyone in uniform that has a public trust to uphold be it a Police Officer, who has to deal directly with the public opinion every day, or a Soldier who is in the public eye, and even someone holding a public office or federal employees that have to answer to the public. Anyone who is part of a group that has been affected by misconduct by part of the group or its leadership were the whole groups public trusts has been
Resulting in the dangers, and difficulties that the job brings to the table, the amount of stress that these men and women endure on a daily basis is tremendous, and devouring. Yet, in most stations around the United States, there is not much, if any help that these officers are provided. Worse even, most of these station’s ignore the need for them, believing that their officers are
What has our society classified as a prisoner of war? A prisoner of war is someone who is a member of regular or irregular armed forces of a nation at war held by the enemy. After two years of war with the Middle East our society wonders what happens to the prisoners in jail. The other conflicts of prisoners of war is how they are treated in jail, also what did they do to be detained as a prisoner of war? In most situations, there is a legitimate reason why these people are taken captive. So many might ask what is happening to the Iraqis detained under Coalition forces custody, and do the prisons comply with standards set fourth in the Geneva Conventions? This subject is very controversial to the U.S and other nations. The controversial part of this subject is the alleged abuse of prisoners in jail in custody of U.S soldiers. There are many cases of prisoners dying in prison but is it because of abuse by American soldiers. This subject of abuse upon prisoners of war has reach all over the world especially to the United States. Our president George W. Bush, along with Congress, has arranged investigations on the events that happen inside the prisons. He has addressed to the nation that such things have not occurred, but what a U.S soldier knows may be a little different. This kind of action toward prisoners of war is illegal according to US law, which is dictated by the Geneva Conventions. If a soldier is found guilty of abuse, or other forms of mistreatment, that soldier will be recommended for court-martial. The other issue about this subject is that there are so many different opinions on this matter. One opinion is that U.S personnel really did cause the death of many prisoners of war. The other question i...
liability the people that created, and implemented the torture and other illegal activity at the CIA.
Investigations must be made particularly with regard to allegations of torture and ill treatment against those who are detained as well as gender based violence perpetrated against females. Those who commit crimes should be held accountable and effective remedies should be provided to victims. Furthermore, protection for journalists should be provided as well as the general public in terms of exercising their freedom of speech.