Too often, in the heat of battle or the heat of a really tough day, we make poor moral choices because we fail to recognize that the problem at hand warrants deliberate moral reflection. We rely on SOPs that aren’t helpful. We fall back on habits that could potentially make things worse. We rush into decisions when we should take time to reflect. We are too ready to rely on gut intuition rather than disciplined moral reasoning. Wouldn't it be nice, this side of boom, to calibrate our moral compass with a framework able to help us navigate moral complexity? 

READ THIS

READINGS:

• Roger Herbert - Moral Reasoning in 7 Questions
• Clouds Over the Mountains
• Love and Faith at War: Reflections on a Platoon Commander in Fallujah

WATCH THIS (Optional)

As you prepare for class, consider the following reading and viewing prompts: 

1. How do rules work? Are rules always to be followed? Should rules be flexible? Or should they be strictly followed sometimes and flexible at others? When? How do you know? And what decides?
2. As future commanders, how you think about rules should influence both how you communicate commander's intent to your subordinates and how you expect them to follow it. In his book Callsign Chaos, General James Mattis asserted, “success on the battlefield, where opportunities and dangers open and close in a few compact and intense minutes, comes from aggressive junior officers with a strong bias for action. Unleashing this quality among junior officers, disciplined by my commander’s intent, was always my vision.” General Mattis wanted his junior officers to display what he called, almost paradoxically, “aligned independence.” How can these qualities come together? 
3. A leitmotif throughout Callsign Chaos is the critical importance of freedom of action within the parameters of commander intent. This should resonate with today's preparatory material.  General Mattis writes, “Doctrine is the last refuge of the unimaginative…it is a guide, not an intellectual straitjacket. Improvise, adapt, and overcome” and then to paraphrase, he stresses “do whatever it takes to carry out the commander’s intent.” What kind of person--with what kind of virtues--is capable of exercising this kind of operational freedom without blowing up the world?