Hello all, I hope all is well.
Long story short, I wanted to generate conversations about the morality of being a solider, specifically for a GB as I am considering going 18x and wanted to connect and see what people’s thoughts on this are whether you are an aspiring GB, a current GB, former GB, non SOF or even civilians. Sorry in advance if this question has already been answered to the extent I am asking for.
Long story:
I value making informed and coherent choices (coherent in the sense they align with my values) and I’ll get back to this as it is relevant but: I am a young person, and am trying to plan out what my life will look like down the road, things all the way from personal careers, what the financial reality of my life will look like, reflection about my childhood and how I want it interacting with my future, what relationships I will keep or discard etc and etc, and a very large and complex area I am reflecting on, amongst those other things, is military service which brings me to being a green beret.
I’ve enjoyed the privileges of being safe from danger my entire life up until this point and owe it to many systems (from the international down to local, having lived on three different continents across my life) and value shouldering the burden of responsibility, which I believe I have, and contributing to this system, as complex as it may be. I don’t have an “itch” for killing and am not going into the military to find a legal way to kill but will say I am not (in theory) opposed to killing, but preface it with the fact that it has to take place under very strict conditions and for “correct” purposes (ex: self defense). America is an incredible country and owe it a debt of gratitude for the opportunities is has given me but I am not gunkho in love with it. It is a complex amalgamation of many people and institutions that conducts very complex actions and that this is not unique to America and so I don’t believe it is “the best in the world” nor “the great satan” and if I enlist, will not be doing it because I am patriotic towards it or any other nations I’ve lived in, although again, I think it is great in many ways.
I have two years before I can enlist on an 18x ray and am already physically training for it using Dr.Walton’s books (great books btw). One of the things I am trying to make sure I am trying to tackle before making the decision to enlist and one thing that consistently is nagging me is that whether this is a moral career field to go down in and to what extent can I even have that answered and is it even a good strategy to make my decision to finally enlist be based on resolving this highly complex question whatever resolving it means?
What are your guys’ thoughts on being a warfighter. What is the morality of being a solider? If the president orders a war how much discretion/ control does the military have to avoid immoral outcomes (ie president says overthrow this leader but the military finds a way to do it in the least destructive way). What if a pointless war is launched but you, as an enlisted man, did the right thing at the level of your responsibilities, should you be proud, ashamed, neutral? I ask this because I am concerned, does the military, with extra emphasis on the leadership like officers and JAG and etc, take actions to ensure that the actions of the military create outcomes that don’t create regret?
What do I know, l'm not in the military but it seems like these questions are very much relevant. Based on what I'm learning, it seems like modern militaries require that you need some ability to reason about these things, especially in SOF where there's very little oversight and where there's discretion. Yea, LOAC and rules of engagement will likely be guiding soldiers' actions regardless of whether they have a natural and personal inclination to consider these questions or not but l think there has to be some level of reasoning, at the very minimum. Is considering these questions a sign of incompatibility? Is the advice that “if you’re going to try to go into SOF and are asking the questions, don’t join” a bad advice or does it have merit? At what point does learning and planning become over planning/learning and I should instead “send it”? I’m spit balling here but do you guys get the idea? Do good intelligent men 1:go into the military and 2:come out as good intelligent men and maintain a strong and healthy self image, of course moral ambiguity might exist but at what point is it too ambiguous crossing into doing the wrong thing?
I don’t need perfect answers, at the very least, a conversation about these things will suffice and hopefully, this will invite people who may be thinking about these things to add their thoughts. Thank you.