Moral Obligation of the Government to Recover POWs

摘要

By choosing to leave POWs in captivity after the cessation of hostilities, the U.S. Government is violating its moral covenant with its service members. Following World War II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War, U.S. servicemen remained as POWs, and despite the intelligence reports received by the government, they were not recovered. The U.S. Government knew it was abandoning its POW and MIA soldiers, but because of political, economic, and social reasons, it took no action to bring them home. The U.S. servicemember is compelled to follow a prescribed Code of Conduct, stating that if captured, he will remain loyal and keep faith in the United States. His moral responsibility is thus a legal one. The government's responsibility, however, is not codified in law, and as a result, in each of the aforementioned military operations, it has failed to fulfill its half of the moral covenant with its servicemembers. The government possesses extreme authority, the ability to deploy soldiers into combat to achieve a political objective unobtainable by diplomacy. As a corollary, it is also responsible to ensure the return of all soldiers and act to bring them home alive. The government, in that capacity, has failed. Current legislation only calls for investigations into POW/MIA accounting efforts, but it does not require action in the event of a military deployment. Recovering remains of MIA personnel years following the cessation of hostilities is a policy of settling for bones. If the government has the intelligence and capability to bring soldiers home alive, it must act. With no legal motivation to uphold its moral covenant with the military, the U.S. Government has repeatedly violated it, and live POWs have been abandoned. Action must be taken before a deployment is ordered, and governmental officials must acknowledge their obligation to bring home all those they send into combat.