HONOR & MILITARY CULTURE ARE DISTINCT FROM GENERAL SOCIETY
The military is necessarily a subset of the broader American society. At each level of scale within the military community, expectations are reinforced through reward, shame, tradition, training, shared understanding, and shared physical danger. For a citizen in a democratic society, the defense of individual rights and dignity is paramount. It is not, however, a priority within the community of defenders if they are to remain effective as a military force. The group must take its place as fundamentally more important than the individual, and the group must be hierarchical to some degree to be most effective. There is no shortage of irony that a free and democratic people would need a hierarchical and autocratic institution to ensure freedom for the larger society.[1]
When combined with the law, the honor, culture, and ethics triad form a standard that defines and enforces military leadership. Leadership is the most valued art of officership and relates intrinsically to military effectiveness. Thousands of officers, leading tens of thousands of enlisted, must coordinate and apply violence collectively. Officers often exercise leadership over great distances, in harsh conditions, and with the threat of death or killing other human beings imminent.
Officership demands that each officer understand the extent of power and responsibility and wield this power judiciously, conscientiously, and well. No other profession demands so much with so much at stake. No other profession demands that its members destroy other peoples, their homes, their equipment, and potentially their way of life in the defense of our own. With such savage intent at its core, officership must balance effectiveness while retaining a sense of humanity. The tie to humanity has not always been adhered to, but this has become increasingly important in the American military.
There is a sacred relationship between officers and the enlisted Americans who make up the community. The officers must develop achievable objectives and strategies and ensure the enlisted have everything they need to accomplish mission objectives. Mission first, people always is the common refrain that captures this bedrock principle. Enlisted leadership is equally as valuable, but the officer corps is the subject of this discussion because of the relationship between Constitutional requirements and the position of authority commissioned officers alone can attain.
Virtuous, humane, honorable, and skilled officers in leadership positions often fail. These qualities are necessary but not enough to win the day. Dishonorable men lacking virtue have won battles and wars. The telos of war is not simply to express honor; all militaries strive for victory. The argument here is not that honor alone carries the day. Rather, defending the U.S. Constitution requires honorable and virtuous leadership to remain legitimate in the eyes of the American people and have the “right stuff” to defend the nation effectively.
Media Contact
Company Name: Strategy Central
Contact Person: Montgomery Erfourth
Email: Send Email
Country: United States
Website: www.strategycentral.io
