An Ethical Dilemma: The Correct Choice to Make In Gallipoli, a 1981 film focusing on several young men who enlist in the Australian Army during World War I, an ethical dilemma is presented. One of the main characters, Archy Hamilton, is given an order by his superior officer, Major Barton, that will surely result in his death, as well as many others’, for nearly no tactical gain. From this order, the dilemma arises: should Archy follow the order given to him and charge fruitlessly into the enemy and inevitable death, or refuse the order in preservation of his own life? The natural instinct of survival—perhaps the most basic and primal human impulse—might lean one towards the option favoring self-preservation. In terms of a Soldier’s duties and Army ethics, however, we will see that the choice should be made to carry out the given orders even if doing so assures death, as long as the orders are lawful. In the film, Colonel Robinson, a brigade commander and Barton’s superior officer, commands Barton to order his men to continue an assault toward an entrenched enemy equipped with several machine guns despite having been informed that the mortality rates of the several previous assaults were nearly one hundred percent and that the men were “being cut down before they can get five yards” (Weir & Lovell, 1981). Barton, in turn, reluctantly relays this order to his men, creating the ethical dilemma. At first glance, it can be easy to see why one might choose to refuse such
also rough seas a lot of the time and it was difficult to wait for the
Ethics Theory for the Military Professional by Chaplin (COL) Samuel D. Maloney illustrates the complex ethical decision making process. Army Leaders are responsible for professionally, and ethically develop subordinates. Developing unethical subordinates in a zero defect Army is a leadership challenge. Goal-Oriented Aspirations, Rule-Oriented Obligations, and Situation-Oriented Decisions provide leaders an understanding of the ethical decision making process. The first step to Professionally developing subordinates is identifying, and providing input on all subordinate goals. Leaders are obligated to enforce rules and regulations. Understanding subordinate character provides leaders with the information to evaluate a soldier’s integrity. However,
Imagine you’re lying on the muddy, damp Earth and all around you can hear the screams of people you know dying. Shells explode, bullets race through the air, and poisonous gas seeps around you, all with the intent to harm you in some way. Yet, you willingly put yourself in that position day after day, year after year. The question surrounding this situation is, why? Who would be masochistic enough to choose to put their lives in danger and live in the most perilous environment possible? Two very different books give us insight into the thoughts of the soldiers who continuously put themselves in these environments. Your Death Would Be Mine by Martha Hanna and All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Remarque lets us into the minds of Paul Pireaud and Paul Baumer as they try to survive life as a soldier in the Great War. I argue that Pireaud and Baumer had very different reasons for continuing to fight despite having suffered beyond belief. In this paper I will analyze how the varying degrees of patriotism, brotherhood, family life at home, and age affected how these two men endured the treacherous life on the front of World War I.
During the early war period, there was a rush of Australian men enlisting to defend their mother country. The inherent sense of pride and patriotism that pervades Australian culture today was part of the driving force behind these men’s intentions. The First World War was propagated as an opportunity to seek adventure and see new exotic places, all the while defending their country. Peer pressure played a major role in inspiring these young men to enlist as they were told to “do their nation proud”. Conclusively, there were a variety of factors contributing to a young man’s urge to enlist but the hastened timeframe and imminent “call to adventure” caused the rush of people to enlist between 1914 to 1915.
In the words of Vice Admiral James Bond Stockdale, USN, “integrity consists of knowing one’s situation through education and thus understanding the limit of your responsibility.” Stockdale, a former Vietnam P.O.W., writes the importance of integrity in “The World of Epictetus.” In September of 1965, Commander Stockdale ejected from his plane only to be captured by the Vietcong during the Vietnam War. In eight years of captivity, the Northern Vietnamese tortured and isolated Stockdale; and in that time, he observed the actions of his men. He witnessed honorable, high-ranking officers cave into their oppressors, while common soldiers refuted any luxuries offered. Stockdale did not solely witness actions, but integrity; how a man acts when
World War I History - World War I - HISTORY.com. 2015. World War I History - World War I - HISTORY.com. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.history.com/topics/world-war-i/world-war-i-history.
The Battle of Gallipoli, also referred to as The Gallipoli Campaign of 1915-16 or the Dardanelles Campaign, was a decisive battle in World War One during which Allied Powers attempted to take control over the sea route between Europe and Russia. Overall, the battle is largely considered a failure. There were many forces that acted against the Allies during the campaign, main causes of the loss were the repelling of the initial naval attack, the failure of the invasion of the Gallipoli Peninsula by the British, French, and ANZAC (Australian and New Zealand Army Corps), and the high level of resistance from the Turks, and an extreme lack in planning
Everyday, people are forced to face with vicious circle of decisions: whether to stick to their morals or obey the authority figure. But it’s a fact that people have a propensity to obey authority, more than to preserve their own morals. A Few Good Men is a film that illustrates the struggle every marine faces-- to follow orders, good or bad. But why would marines follow the orders without hesitation if that order questions the principles they live by? Because the orders in the navy are meant to follow all for the reason of making everyone in Navy into good marines and to be strong enough to defend the nation. It required unquestioning commitment and obedience to orders. The articles, “The Perils of Obedience” by Stanley Milgram and “The
Military personnel operating in combat missions must maintain mental and situational awareness of their area of operations. This includes a complete understanding of their physical and doctrinal training. Besides accomplishing their mission, soldiers must also consider the rules of engagement and the personal and professional ethics, values and morals that factor into their decisions in high stress environments (Allen, 2013). Well planned missions will never be executed perfectly. Due to human nature, soldiers may be faced with an ethical dilemma.
While these three points are extensively discussed and dissected, it is apparent that the key factor that makes us professionals is the ethical standard that we must hold every individual soldier, from the lowest private to the highest general, to. One of the major points that are missing is what happens when the ethical standard is breeched and how it is dealt with.
Based on their sense of duty to follow the order, Captain Miller and his men used a deontological ethical framework to guide their decision-making process. The University of Texas Business school states that deontology ethics, “requires that people follow the rules and do their duty” (McCombs School of Business, n.d.). The duties of a soldier are to follow the orders of the officers and individuals appointed over them. In this case, Captain Miller and his men fell underneath the command of General Marshall.
You have to consider for a moment the serious nature of this action. When we deploy, we rely on the person to our left and right. The profession of arms is one that requires all to do their part. Combat, by nature, is a physical, difficult, and demanding task. A person’s very life may depend on the actions of those around him or her. Ask any Soldier pulled from the vehicle hit by an improvised explosive device if that is true or not. You must have personnel on whom you can rely. The actions and directions from the brigade forced us to accept people who may be
Combating in modern warfare does not simply mean killing the enemy. There are ethical rules and standards of behavior that soldiers must strictly follow because these rules are essential for defeating the enemy, winning "hearts and minds" of potential allies, and maintain the morale of the troops. These tasks have become especially challenging in the face of the proliferation of guerilla warfare that has been adopted by weaker military forces in the twentieth- and twenty-first centuries. In fighting insurgencies, abiding by the ethical standards of the Army behavior may be even harder than in fighting conventional battles. The ethical rules may sometimes put the soldiers in dangerous positions. Disregarding the acceptable standards of behavior, however, may have even graver consequences, putting innocent non-combatants at risk and risking total demoralization of the Army unit participating in disorderly behavior. It is therefore essential that Army leaders maintain an ethical command climate during the war.
Combat compliance is framed as an analytic puzzle related to the variability of behavior, or responses of combatants, both individuals and as a collective, to the realities and risks of warfare. The underlying assumption here is that there is an intrinsic risk of death in any scenario of combat (Magagna, 2016). The enemy is always rationally assumed to have an interest in your death. What follows is that obeying of commands presents itself as an implicit acceptance of such risks. The puzzle here is figuring out how and why vastly differing reactions occur. At some points soldiers show limited levels of compliance, sometimes even ending up in mutiny, while in other cases units show extremely high levels of compliance, exhibiting tenacity under conditions of overwhelming odds (Magagna, 2016). This essay attempts to explain the factors that give rise to the variability of combat compliance. What is important, as alluded to earlier, is to be able to provide a generalizable argument that is applicable across time and space. The essay will first lay out of varying levels of combat compliance to discuss the characteristics and consequences of variability. Secondly, it will explore and contrast the factors of automaticity as a function of training and institutional design and the factor of the combat contract as a rational cost benefit analysis of material and moral incentives, in an attempt to critically analyze their merits in accounting for the variability of combat compliance.
Although the film “Saving Private Ryan” can be viewed through several moral views, overall the film can be best viewed through the deontological ethics. The majority of the film is based off of someone intending to do the right thing even when the consequences were high. The company had duties to uphold as soldiers and they did what they had to in order to fulfill them. According to Kant, humans usually know what they ought to do, and that is almost always the opposite of what they want to do (Rosenstand 2013, page 285).