JUSTIN SULLIVAN/GETTY IMAGES
THE RECRUITS
courage and commitment with
the goal, according to the Marine
Corps, of producing young Marines
“thoroughly indoctrinated in love
of Corps and Country ... the epitome of personal character, selflessness, and military virtue.” The code
is unyielding. “There is no room in
the Marine Corps for either situational ethics or situational morality,” declares a standing order
issued in 1996 by the then-commandant, Gen. Charles Krulak.
The Army’s moral codes are
similar, demanding loyalty, respect (“Treat others with dignity
and respect while expecting oth-
HUFFINGTON
03.16-23.14
ers to do the same”), honor and
selfless service.
All this may sound like the moral ideals by which most Americans
strive to live. But the military’s
moral codes are different: They are
issued to each recruit along with
a weapon and the training, and
eventually the authorization, to
kill. Success on the battlefield may
call for the suspension of basic notions of civilian morality in order
to accomplish the mission. Thus
the military codes add dimensions
of loyalty, duty and personal courage, and back up those values with
a requirement of rigid and unquestioning discipline and obedience to
lawful orders. The Army’s Soldier’s
Creed demands that troops “al-
U.S. Army
Sgt. Jonathan
Duralde
(right) and
Sgt. Luis
Gamarra hold
hands as they
fight pain
from injuries
they suffered
in an IED
blast in June
2010, near
Kandahar,
Afghanistan.