Ethical behavior on the battlefield

Angry Planet

Matthew Gault

War, Politics, Conflict, Government, History, News

4.3 • 882 Ratings

🗓️ 28 February 2017

⏱️ 33 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Growing up, I was always told the military's job was to “kill people and break stuff.” It’s a maxim that gained popularity in the United States at the end of the Vietnam War. But total war with few rules, as World War One demonstrated, carries too high a human cost. This week on War College, philosophy professor Pauline Kaurin explains the role of ethics and morality in warfare, and the gaps in educating military officers and enlistees alike about them. Instead, she argues, the U.S. military places an emphasis on officers and enlistees developing their own personal morality based on core values. But, as Kaurin and I discuss, that isn’t sufficient. By Matthew Gault Produced and edited by Bethel Habte

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Love this podcast.
0:02.0	Support this show through the A-cast supporter feature.
0:05.0	It's up to you how much you give,
0:07.0	and there's no regular commitment.
0:09.0	Just click the link in the show description to support now.
0:13.0	The views expressed on this podcast are those of the participants, not of Reuters news.
0:21.0	Personal morality is not a, you know, it's not a get out of ethics free card and I think that
0:28.0	that is how the military views these ethical questions. What ethics around
0:39.0	what ethics surround warfare, Not morality, ethics. And how often should the U.S.
0:45.8	military revisit those rules? Strategies to prevent the next Abu Ghraib or Navy bribery
0:51.3	scandal on this week's war college.
0:54.0	You're listening to Reuters War College,
1:00.0	you're listening to Reuters War College, a discussion of the world in conflict, focusing on the stories behind the front lines. Hello, welcome to War College. I'm your host Matthew Galt. With us today's Philosophy Professor
1:22.2	Pauline Corinne.
1:23.0	She's the chair of philosophy at Pacific Lutheran University
1:26.0	and an expert in military ethics.
1:28.0	She literally wrote the textbook on the subject.
1:31.0	She's here today to tell us about the importance of ethical
1:34.1	warfare and the breakdown of ethics in America's military leadership.
1:37.9	Pauline, thank you so much for joining us. Thank you for having me. All right, so I want to start with a real basic definition of terms.
1:45.8	What's the difference exactly between ethics and morality?
1:51.6	Morality refers to either what an individual thinks is right and wrong,
	...

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