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Essay On Profession Of Arms

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Information Paper on The Profession of Arms, An Army White Paper In 2010, the Secretary of the Army and the Army Chief of Staff directed that the Commanding General of Training and Doctrine Command lead a review of the Army Profession. This came at the height of nearly a decade of very high operational tempo in both Iraq and Afghanistan. Army leadership felt this immense stress upon the force could potentially cause the Army to lose touch with the foundation of its ethic and what it means to be a profession. The underlying premise was that no such traumatic period of prolonged conflict could occur without some kind of change. While this is not always bad and certainly the force had become much more proficient in its warrior tasks and drills, leadership became concerned that other core competencies had fallen to the wayside. Among these, is the ability of the Army to self police itself, care for its families and soldiers, and continue to find time for development amongst operations (Profession of Arms, 2010, p. 1). Also waning, is the Army’s ability to modernize how it manages talent and interact with the population it serves (Prof. of Arms, p. 1). …show more content…

This drives how and why the Army fights. Interestingly enough at the time of the white paper, ethic was not actually codified in doctrine (Prof. of Arms, p. 2). As a baseline, the paper proposes that the purpose and moral basis of the Army is defending human rights and the United States right to political autonomy. By extension, this also means protecting others who respect human rights and not violating rights in the process (Prof. of Arms, p. 12). The Army ethic is exemplified in how it fights and true leaders exercise ethic by not always resorting to deadly force (Prof. of Arms, p. 13). This careful execution of force with moral ethic is what brings about the ultimate objective of conflict, which is sustainable peace (Prof. of Arms, p.

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