The Teaching of Morality in Warfighting in Today's Officer Corps

It is the seventh day of the war. The air campaign has not been going well and the enemy has decided to test our ground forces. Between their resilient air defenses, our inadequate intelligence, and the weather, most of the targets attacked by air have survived unscathed. The highly touted six day air war has not bought the enemy's leadership to the negotiating table. As a targeteer sitting in the Joint Targeting Coordination Board morning briefing, you can feel the tension. Charging into the room, the Joint Force Commander is visibly frustrated as he takes the seat at the head of the table. After a long pause, he calmly but forcefully delivers the following, "I want you to open up the target list. The gloves are coming off, By next week, I don't want a single person in that country to have electricity, to be able to drive to the store, to send their kids to school, or to be able to get water out of their faucets, If their leadership is going to force this war on us, then I want every person in their country to feel the effects of their decision! Go to work!" As an officer in today's military, what thoughts are running through your mind? What are the moral implications of the guidance just given in this scenario? What training in Just War Theory or morality in war fighting do you have as a foundation to help yourself work through the moral implications of this guidance? Should you, as a military officer, be concerned about the moral implications? These are tough questions, even emotional questions. They are questions that military officers should be able to answer. Moreover, officers should have training that enables them to answer these questions objectively. The purpose of this paper is to examine the teaching of morality in warfare and Just War Theory in Officer Professional Military Education (PME) in today's armed services. Furthermore, this paper will address the sufficiency and consistency of these courses among the services.