I didn't think I'd ever have to say this, but the class I'm taking at the War College right now has opened my eyes a little bit. There are indeed two groups of folks in the military today. And one of them scares me; they are younger, newer, publicly indoctrinated and morally defunct, officers and enlisted. I had one actually tell me that Machiavelli is our moral compass in warfare ... wow. And that our role is to simply implement policy, not question ... wow. That really is not the case, but they believe it is.
Truthfully, they are not the majority, but they are growing in number, and they are mainly in the junior levels of leadership. And they are not in the Combat Arms communities; that's important. The Combat Arms commanders who have seen it first hand are more akin to the group I find myself in; traditional, intelligent, evaluate orders but temper with moral decisionmaking, offer feedback on HOW to accompish mission objectives in a more just manner. But the push right now is to replace combat arms as the primary mission, so these newer folks will come more and more into the forefront in our future engagements. That's a shame.
