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Ethical challenges need clarity
As the Chief Instructor, Sergeants Course, one of my duties is to teach the ethical decisionmaking class in which sergeants discuss various moral dilemmas. Students bring up the My Lai massacre and the recent incidents at Haditha and Abu Ghraib, as well as other scenarios where essentially good people did bad things, and the actions of those individuals had global effects. In all of these scenarios the final outcome-the distinction between success and disaster-rested with the decisions and actions of small unit leaders. After leading guided discussions with numerous classes and more than 100 smart and dedicated noncommissioned officers (NCOs), I've come to the conclusion that there is a problem with loyalty in the young leaders of our Corps.
No, our Marines are not morally corrupt; they are not selling our Nation's secrets. The backbone of our Corps is not conspiring to undermine good order and discipline. On the contrary, they are the agents for good order and discipline, but I believe that they are receiving mixed messages. The sergeants I teach come to me teetering on the fence between two ways of thinking. On one side they possess a code of behavior where the ends justify the means. They also possess an unquestionable loyalty to their Marines and an understanding that their primary mission is to take care of their Marines at all costs. If you combine these views you have a recipe for Marines willing to do whatever it takes, even things morally and ethically wrong, justifying their behavior because their intentions are good. On the other side of the fence are the core values of honor, courage, and commitment; the commander's intent; and the absolutes of the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ). The decision between right and wrong in this struggle should clearly fall on the latter side of the fence with our core values and the UCMJ. In fact, you would be hard pressed to justify any questionable behavior using the core values as a guide, but still the debate arises in all of my guided discussions with Sergeants Course students.
The purpose of this article is to expose an unspoken code of conduct that exists in our Corps, one that puts our young leaders...