Army rethinks how it teaches ethics to soldiers

[unhappycamper]

Army rethinks how it teaches ethics to soldiers
By John Milburn - The Associated Press
Posted : Monday Dec 28, 2009 7:44:45 EST

FORT LEAVENWORTH, Kan. — Army leaders who’ve been prompted to rethink tactics and war-fighting doctrines because of Iraq and Afghanistan also see a need to re-examine how they educate soldiers about ethics.

Some of the interest in ethics is tied to the wars: the black eye of the Abu Ghraib prison scandal, concerns that stress from unconventional conflict leads to bad decisions, and, for at least one retired general, the sense that the military lost the public’s trust in Iraq. But some leaders also say the Army has worried for a while that it hasn’t been doing a good enough job of instilling strong ethics.

Officials at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y., and at Fort Leavenworth, home to the Army’s Command and General Staff College, are still in the early stages of developing the material they’ll blend into handbooks, papers, online presentations and videos they use to train soldiers. Officers involved in the effort say that eventually a soldier’s grounding in ethics — strong or weak — will become a factor in promotions.

The Army’s efforts to rethink its training on ethics received a boost this fall, when Texas billionaire and two-time presidential candidate Ross Perot pledged $6.1 million to a private foundation supporting programs at Fort Leavenworth’s command college. One result is a new chairmanship in ethics — the kind of post universities set up for academic areas they deem important.

“It can’t be, ‘Today we’ll do ethics training and that will do for the year,’” said Brig. Gen. Ed Cardon, deputy commandant of the Fort Leavenworth college. “It has to be ingrained in everything we do, on and off duty.”


Rest of article at: http://www.armytimes.com/news/2009/12/ap_army_ethics_122809/



unhappycamper comment: Maybe when you guys are looking at ethics you could do something about the sexual assault/rape 'problem'. 25% of female soldiers have reported being raped or sexually assaulted.

[pipoman]

1. Any cite for the 25% figure?

[unhappycamper]

2. I actually low-balled the percentage.

http://makkah.wordpress.com/2009/11/29/rape-within-the-u-s-military-1-in-3-women-service-members-sexually-assaulted-at-least-once/

http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2007/03/07/women_in_military/

http://www.opednews.com/articles/Military-Rape-Awarness-Wee-by-Elaine-Brower-091013-340.html

http://www.pbs.org/now/shows/421/index.html

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/03/17/military-rape-reports-ris_n_176106.html

[DrDan]

3. can you actually "teach" ethics? Behavior, perhaps. But ethics?

[PavePusher]

4. It starts at home.

No-one is born with any ethics or morals. You learn by example and education. Just like anything else. It could be argued that some individuals, due to abnormal, but natural, brain function can not learn such, but I don't know anywhere near enough about psychology, neurology or biochemistry of the brain to even start discussing this topic.

[DrDan]

5. of course - they are formed through experiences, internalizing reactions

and consequences of past behavior, etc.

You cannot take a 3 day-course (or whatever) and walk away with a set of "ethics". You can direct people as to how to behave - but not how they feel about that behavior.