Green on Blue: causes and responses (merged thread)

[JMA]

JMA talks about moral courage and I wonder if we have managed to construct a system that has effectively squelched it amongst the generals. I don't know how we did it or how we can fix.

Ernest Hemingway wrote:

“Few men are willing to brave the disapproval of their fellows, the censure of their colleagues, the wrath of their society.

Moral courage is a rarer commodity than bravery in battle or great intelligence.

Yet it is the one essential, vital quality of those who seek to change a world which yields most painfully to change.”

And this one:

"Bravery is the quintessence of the soldier... But moral courage - the strength of character to do what one knows Is right regardless of the personal consequences - is the true face of conscience. Sacking your best friend, facing up rather than turning the blind eye, accepting that the principle at stake is more important than your job... Such actions demand moral courage of a high order."
Lieutenant-General Sir James Glover. Soldier and His Conscience. Pavameiers. 9/1981.

And finally:

"Last, but by no means least, courage—moral courage, the courage of one's convictions, the courage to see things through. The world ; is in a constant conspiracy against the brave. It's the age-old struggle--the roar of the crowd on one side and the voice of your; conscience on the other." -Douglas MacArthur

Your question: "... how can we fix?"

It starts with officer selection... the weaknesses in the system have been discussed elsewhere... where it needs to be specifically "tested" for. Doesn't happen anywhere other than by chance.

If you read Antony Beeevor's book: "Inside the British Army" you get a glimpse into the difficulties - the change of 'values' among the recent generation - are causing in the Brit military.

How many of the current US generation are prepared to "... to brave the disapproval of their fellows, the censure of their colleagues, the wrath of their society?"

There's your answer...

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