The Army: A Profession of Arms

[Bob Underwood]

Read Clausewitz! If the application of force is not effectively setting forth the policy then it should not applied. - and you should either change the policy or apply the force in a way that serves it.

I have read Clausewitz ... one of the reasons I hold my views. So, now what? Also, here you are making a normative or moral claim about policy - "should not". No government has taken up action intending to lead to their own ruin. However, simply because they thought it was smart doesn't make it so. (cf. below).

Name me a politician or leader who has ever set forth a policy he states to be "un-ethical?" Policy comes from politics. Politics is power over people. Power is always ethical in the eyes of those holding it.

I'm not especially worried about the eyes of those holding power. Simply because somebody has the power to do something does not make it right for them to do it. (Read Plato, or Clausewitz, or Fuller, or Fahrenbach et al.)

Well then the problem is a lack of education in basic professional military thinking. The very basics of linking Policy to tactics via strategy are missing. This is not because the world got more complicated. It is because the Army gave up reading books and educating people.

On this we are agreed, however, I think we have widely divergent views on what the products of that education should be. But how can we understand policy and our place in it unless we understand the categories of its making? There is certainly more than simple power protecting power here.

Regards,
Bob

[William F. Owen]

However, simply because they thought it was smart doesn't make it so. (cf. below).

I'm not especially worried about the eyes of those holding power. Simply because somebody has the power to do something does not make it right for them to do it.

OK. So what are you saying we should do to remedy this?

Read Plato, or Clausewitz, or Fuller, or Fahrenbach et al.

Not well read in Plato. Adhere to and study Clausewitz. Fuller was a clown and needs to be ignored. Only read one book by Fahrenbach - This Kind of War - excellent!
[/QUOTE]

[Pete]

Chuck G., what does CAPE stand for?

[davidbfpo]

Chuck G., what does CAPE stand for?

Carefully Assessing Professional Education
Capable Amateur Pursues Education
Charting America's Professional Evolution
Communist Activity Proletariat Executed

Back to breakfast.

[Bill Jakola]

Carefully Assessing Professional Education
Capable Amateur Pursues Education
Charting America's Professional Evolution
Communist Activity Proletariat Executed

Back to breakfast.

CAPE stands for the Center for the Army Profession and Ethic
This is a modified acronym that recently changed from ACPME.

See this Stand-To article for more background.

http://www.army.mil/standto/archive/2010/01/05

Army Center of Excellence for the Professional Military Ethic

What is it?

West Point and its Army Center of Excellence for the Professional Military Ethic (ACPME) serve as the Army's professional military ethic executive agent to increase Army-wide understanding, ownership and sustained development of the Army professional ethic through research, education and publication. ACPME broad objectives are: (1) assess, study and refine the professional military ethic of the force; (2) create and integrate professional military ethical knowledge; (3) accelerate professional military ethic development in individuals, units and Army culture and (4) support the socialization of the professional military ethic across the Army culture and profession.

[Bill Jakola]

CAPE stands for the Center for the Army Profession and Ethic
This is a modified acronym that recently changed from ACPME.

CAPE is now part of TRADOC and no longer owned by the USMA, so the name change helps to distinguish this change.