Code of the Warrior & the 'Kinder, Gentler Army'

摘要

As the name implies, this paper addresses the impact, on the Code of the American Warrior, of accusations that today's 'Kinder, Gentler Army' is incapable of winning wars. The paper seeks to determine whether the American soldier's professional ethic should change as America's Army enters the 21st Century. Criticisms regarding a degradation of the American warrior ethic are examined in two broad categories: as a result of societal pressures, primarily the integration of women into the Army, and as a result of increased participation in military operations short of war. The study describes the evolution of the warrior code, and while there is no official code of the American warrior, establishes what that code essentially is. The paper reviews past warrior codes in an effort to apply lessons learned by other societies. After deriving what some might call an idealistic warrior ethic, the paper seeks to determine whether the average soldier is capable of living up to it. The research project's conclusion is that the current Code of the American Warrior is 'about right', but could be slightly improved for operations short of war by incorporating lessons from the Chinese warriors of the Tao Te Ching and American law enforcement agencies.