ETHICS AND OPERATIONS: Training the Combatant

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The ethical dilemmas of modern war, 3 April 2003, An Najaf, Iraq: Faced by hundreds of menacing Iraqi civiliians, LTC Chris Hughes, commander, 2d Battalion, 327th Infantry, tells his Soldiers to smile, take a knee, and point their weapons at the ground. "We'll let them defuse this themselves, " he said, and they did.

Centre des Hautes Etudes Militaires

THE SOLDIER'S PROFESSION, according to French General Eric de La Maisonneuve, "is above all concerned with the situation and has reality only in relation to the moment."1 In today's environment, however, several new factors are having an impact on the Soldier.

First, ideologies are in decline, but moral expectations …