MILITARY ETHICS, Sebin kumbalath

MILITARY ETHICS

The Webster's New World Dictionary Military ethics is a set of practices and philosophy to guide members of the armed forces to act in a manner consistent with the values and standards as established by military tradition, and to actively clarify and enforce these conditions rigorously in its administrative structure. The Department of Defense 5500.7-R (Dodd 5500.7-R), serves as the primary regulatory source of ethical standards and conduct to members of the Armed Services (Dodd, pg 1). Since this is the only order used, all changes must be made by revision.

Military ethics is evolutionary and the administrative structure is modified as new ethical perspectives consistent with national interests evolve.

Some ethical issues involving a country's military establishment, such as:

1. justification for using force
2. race (loss of capability due to race bias or abuse)
3. gender equality (loss of capability due to gender bias or abuse)
4. age discrimination (authority based upon age)
5. nepotism (unfair control by family members; also known as "empire building")
6. political influence (military members having a political position or political influence)

And others.

Defines ethics as, "the system of morals of a particular person, religion, group, etc." The definition does not attempt to rate the relative 'goodness' or 'badness' of any given system, because such a rating is irrelevant. A 'bad' system is just as much a 'system' as is a 'good' system. The relative difference between any two systems is just that, a relative difference. Very broad agreement about what constitutes 'good' and 'bad' allows a surprisingly broad variety of ethical systems to exist side by side. Many people think of the military as an organization that exists to kill, and are unable to reconcile that incorrect world view with the existence of any kind of 'moral' or 'ethical' system, because most commonly accepted ethical systems rate killing as an unacceptable act.