Collateral Damage with the Frontier Resource Group

3rd Brigade, 101st Airborne Division must face reality. “The kill company” scandal has seriously damaged the image of the US Army, which in turn has challenged the trust the Nation places in its armed forces. More concretely, these events highlighted the need for strengthening the Rakkasans’ ethics standards. Soldiers are not warriors; they are ethical warriors, whose identity relies on two inseparable pillars: ethics principles and operational efficiency. The Army core values reflect this ethical identity and the duties that come with it. Understanding that warriors need solid ethical references, the Brigade will demonstrate commitment to the Army values, invest in ethics education, and engage leadership.

How far would you go for your country? Would you lie, cheat, still, or even murder another human? How would your moral compass guide you? As members of the Armed Forces, we’re asked to do a number of things to keep America safe. There are times when those military tasks fail to align with our own ethical values. These ethical dilemmas require an array of skills to effectively address and decide our course of action. Additionally, having the knowledge and understanding of the different ethical frameworks is essential, and will help pave the way for future decision on ethical dilemmas.

In times of war it is quite common for people to start questioning their values and their actions and be unsure of the path they are taking. This is common because to protect our values we often are told that we have to take actions that conflict with those values. One example would be how to protect our liberties we must sometimes restrain those liberties during treacherous times. However, the ultimate question is whether or not going against the very values we stand for is a hypocritical and wrongful action plan. Bruce Springsteen approaches this very issue in his song “Devils & Dust”, from the CD with the same title, and he subtly criticizes how the United States is betraying

The United States from the Cold War and into the Global War on Terrorism (GWOT) continues to face challenges in translating military might into political desires due to its obsession with raising an army, electing politicians and assembling a diplomatic corp that continue to gravitate towards State-to-State engagements that if not rectified could lead to substantial delays in fighting terrorism and non-terrorist adversaries or worse total failure of the United States Military’s ability to properly carry out it’s politicians objectives due to being blindsided.

Contemporarily the termination of Osama bin Laden’s reign of terror at the top al Qaeda is one of these actions. The United States sent a handpicked group of soldiers, the navy SEALs and the U.S. special operation force, into Pakistan, a country at war due to conflict of internal groups that rule the country. The attack happened at night, and it was an oversea operation that lasted minutes in which a three floor house was raided and bin Laden was killed. If killing is “bad” and it is against the law, then why was bin Laden killed? Certainly this was the necessary action that had to be taken. “The ends justify the means,” it would be for the greater good (Prince Machiavelli). This situation is an innuendo to a part in the movie in which Lau, the accountant for the mob groups in Gotham, flees to Hong Kong in order to escape the jurisdiction of the Gotham’s justice system.

Throughout post-WWII history, the United States has taken on the role of the world’s police. They feel the obligation to ensure the spread of their ideals for selfish and self-righteous reasons. John Mueller and Odd Arne Westad share their arguments as to what the United States’ actions have produced during the Cold War in Eastern Europe, Korea, and Vietnam and during the post-9/11 period in the Afghanistan and Iraq. While some of their arguments are valid, others are flawed.

“Within the Army, trust serves as a vital organizing principle that establishes the conditions necessary for effective and ethical mission command and a profession that continues to earn the trust of the American people” (pg. 2-1). Civilian authorities and the people the Army protects and fights for must never doubt the integrity of the Army. True belief in just acts forms a bond between the military and the civilian domain that is vital to function as a complete enterprise where both entities better the

In United States Military, particularly the Army, all soldiers both men and women, take an oath to protect and defend the United States Constitution. However, there is one soldier named Bowe Bergdahl who thought that it would be okay to just leave his post, without letting his squad know where he was going, and thus creating a controversy that has rocked the political environment in Washington D.C. After listening to the Serial Podcast by Sarah Koneig and hearing all the interviews from political leaders, former squad mates, and even reporters, it is fair to come to the conclusion that Bowe Bergdahl deserves to be charged with Desertion and Misbehaving before the enemy. In this essay, I am going to briefly explain why Bergdahl deserves to

The Army is a way of life; a culture designed to understand, embrace, and demonstrate its understanding. Throughout the entire existence of the Army its culture has been based on elements such as oaths, creeds, the Warrior Ethos and the Army Values. The elements of the Army’s culture are the basis for ethical conduct. Soldiers have been taught to uphold and live by the Army Values but they have not necessarily been taught to remain a professional while upholding these standards. By instilling ethical and moral value into the professional soldier the military is ensuring that all soldiers, even lower level soldiers, are able to make complex and tactical decisions for a strategic effect. If the Army has unethical soldiers they risk failure. Failure due to unethical soldiers can have strategically far reaching implications for the Army, our client nation, and international allies.

This authority determines the future of the force, and as stewards of the profession, it is our responsibility to continuously earn the trust of the civilian populace. The American people have a foundational, but fragile, basis of trust with the Army earned over decades of service. Unprofessional behavior and unethical actions have negative impacts on the fragile trust relationship. Thus, we must perform, “our duty every day in a manner that the American people judge to be ethical according to the beliefs and values enshrined in the Nation’s founding documents” (citation needed).

Ethics could vary depending on a person’s beliefs and way of thinking. Some people could see them potentially risking the lives of thousands as ethical to save millions of Americans. Others are ethically against war as a whole; seeing it as unnecessary and peace is viable. The United States deemed it necessary to retaliate against Japan for the Pearl Harbor attack and that is what lead to the spark of the nuclear war weapons use against

In 2013, The United States spent over $737 billion on its military, at a time where the country is in an economic crisis. The United States spends more money on the military then most of the world combined, it’s no secret that the U.S is known as the world’s police. What are the consequences that will come with this, the American citizens are already feeling the effects of modern imperialism. In order to maintain the world police status, the United Sates continues to make cuts toward the infrastructure and the economy. American roadways, schools, social services, emergency services and the environment are

An oil executive runs the State Department and a war criminal is the Secretary of Defense, which in many ways is nothing new. However, the fact that business executives and military generals no longer need a middle-man to negotiate their interests should worry anyone interested in living in a quasi-democratic and free

Every year sub-Saharan Africa receives around $134bn in loans, foreign investment and development aid, according to the UN. Nonetheless, sub-Saharan Africa is still the poorest region in the world. For many years the international community has debated over the reasons why every year billion and billions of dollars are not taking sub-Saharan Africans out of poverty. Three major groups have prevailed in the discussion. First, the people who totally blame Africa for not doing its job right, completely forgetting that most of the funds are not administrated by Africans. Second, the people who believe that even though aids are not working, the international community should keep investing funds in Africa even if is failing; one day they will work.

Previously, I perceived our opponents to be the “bad guys” and the United States to be the heroes that were helping people around the world. While this may be true in some applications, I’m no longer naïve to the fact that the U.S. isn’t handing out millions of dollars in economic interest simply because it’s the right thing to do. Rather, I believe that most military conflicts the U.S. has engaged in over the last century, as well as the current battles in Syria and throughout the Middle East, stem principally from economic motivations. While I’m undecided in the political debate that exists between political parties over the term imperialism itself, I’ve become keenly aware of how much of our country’s foreign policy is driven by the economic needs of its citizens. The profound change I’ve experienced is in remaining mindful as to the influence on foreign policy that receptive markets and favorable political conditions in countries throughout the world has.