World expects ethics from American troops, service academy chiefs say
Three-quarters of the way through a panel discussion of military values and ethics, hosted by the Harvard Kennedy School’s Carr Center for Human Rights Policy, moderator Alberto Mora, a senior fellow at the center, cut to the bone: If terrorists aren’t following the rules of warfare, why should we? The response was unified and emphatic at Friday’s session from the panelists, three superintendents of U.S. military academies. The American military, they said, must uphold U.S. values, and this means adherence to the rules of engagement. “This is the challenge going forward,” said Vice Adm. Walter E. “Ted” Carter, superintendent of the Naval Academy. Beginning with World War I, after the use of mustard gas and the new “death machine” or machine gun, “the American military drove this idea that there are certain things we just don’t do. They don’t represent the values of who we are as American people.” Even today, when the...