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| -Short Attention Span Theater- |
| Lying to Ourselves: The Demise of Military Integrity |
| 2015-03-12 |
| [War on the Rocks] Leaders lie "in the routine performance of their duties," and "ethical and moral transgressions [occur] across all levels" of the organization. Leaders have also become "ethically numb," using "justifications and rationalizations" to overcome any ethical doubts. This "tacit acceptance of dishonesty... [facilitates] hypocrisy" among leaders. These quotations sound like they are ripped from the headlines about some major corporate scandal. But they're not describing Enron before its collapse in 2001, or firms like Lehman Brothers and Countrywide before the 2008 financial crisis. Instead, they describe one of the country's most respected institutions: the U.S. Army. Leonard Wong and Stephen Gerras, who are both professors at the U.S. Army War College, just published a devastating study called Lying to Ourselves: Dishonesty in the Army Profession. They state up front that indications of ethical and moral problems can be found throughout the entire U.S. military, not just in the Army. These include (but certainly are not limited to) U.S. Air Force personnel cheating on tests about nuclear launch systems, and U.S. Navy admirals and others sharing classified information in exchange for gifts and bribes. Last year, Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel appointed a two-star admiral as the first Senior Advisor for Military Professionalism to address mounting concerns about ethical issues throughout the force. Both lengthy and thought provoking. |
| Posted by:Besoeker |
| #6 This is relatively simple: we have had 6 years of Obama approved flag officers, who were chosen for their obedience and "moral malleability" to go-along get-along with progressivism at the expense of good military order and particularly merit. And Bush had somewhat of benign but ultimately weak approach of managing flag officers, allowing the rot to set in before Obama took full advantage of it by weeding out combat proven leaders in favor of blanket folders. |
| Posted by: OldSpook 2015-03-12 22:39 |
| #5 Well said NoMoreBS. Many of us have watched this scenario unfold for decades. |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2015-03-12 20:19 |
| #4 When you see selections for promotion based on gender, race or special connections, and the same special people are more immune from discipline, integrity and performance expectations you quickly see the career path requires gamesmanship, as well as effort if you are not in a protected quota. You get verbose operational planning, but timid execution. Why take risks or responsibility when you can ride the fools who still believe duty, honor, courage. Sad to see the last noble profession slide slowly onto the common miasma of government. |
| Posted by: NoMoreBS 2015-03-12 20:15 |
| #3 Slippery brown stuff runs downhill. The C-in-C is incapable of putting two sentences together without both of them being a lie. Honesty, professionalism, and integrity will only get you screwed. Think of this: Every single member of the armed forces, congress, the professional government at every level, has sworn to uphold, support, defend, and bear true faith and allegiance to the Constitution, yet we've had six years where every concept of the Constitution has been trashed, and more than a hundred years where the 9th and 10th amendments have been totally ignored. ALL of them need to be fired. Lead pink slips are authorized. |
| Posted by: Old Patriot 2015-03-12 20:02 |
| #2 Like the Air Force on both SpaceX and the Warthog? Or smaller stuff? |
| Posted by: 3dc 2015-03-12 19:22 |
| #1 Great post. I've seen this kind of crap permeate too many private business organizations. A "little bit" of dishonesty is, well, "positioning." Maybe an "All Volunteer" force eventually begets a "go along to get along" mindset? When I was in, everybody was aware of at least one "goat" who screwed up and was made a concrete reminder of the downside. Nowadays this would not fly. Dunno. |
| Posted by: Hupineger Glomomp52169 2015-03-12 19:02 |