Sgt. 1st Class Charles Martland was discharged in November 2011 for beating up an Afghanistan ally for the practice of child rape, reported foxnews.com. His appeal to be placed back in his office was rejected by the Army this September and has fueled the fire anew on problems the U.S. Army is going through.
“The case sheds light on the tensions that can build when U.S. soldiers are told to tolerate foreign customs that are repugnant to them. In this particular case the soldiers were told to ‘look away,’” wrote multiple news sources, such as the Olympian.
“I’d rather stand up and do what we felt was the right thing than be praised for restraint,” said Capt. Daniel Quinn, who was in the beating together with Martland, to thenewstribune.com.
“Most of the people going into the military are very moral,” said Marc Myer from Nevada, who works as a civilian for the U.S. Navy on Oahu. “They are predominately Christian and ethical.”
“There are a number of competing arguments,” said Daniel Stout, communications professor. “The ethicist would ask what the moral law is.”
He said there are many man-made laws in history that later turned out to be unethical, like slavery or female mutilation. “The soldier’s argument would be based on the utilitarian philosophy of the greater good. Which act results in the greater good for the people involved? He has a really strong argument in protecting a child.”
Thenewstribune.com reported that California Rep. Duncan Hunter, a former Marine, wrote, “The fact that this one incident — an incident that was seriously misinterpreted by Army leadership, without even taking into consideration the moral necessity to intervene — is now the determining factor in SFC Martland’s career is a black mark for the U.S. Army.”
Myer said, “We have a military that is changing really rapidly over the last 6 or 7 years. They have been getting orders from Washington to change their policies. The military people are complaining that they cannot do their job anymore. They can’t do anything without getting permission from DC.”
If soldiers are getting shot at, they have to call for permission to return fire, according to Myer.
About the soldier’s disobedience, Stout said, “It’s the general rule that we obey military commands because we have given this authority to the military to accomplish [certain] goals, but if in circumstances a military commander asks an immoral act to be perpetrated, the question of obedience becomes ethical.”
He continued, “Despite the fact that this act might be sanctioned by the culture doesn’t make it moral. There is also the idea of universal, meta ethics: certain acts that are immoral or unethical in any culture. Murder, torture and stealing for example.”
Sexual molestation of a child would fall into this category too, according to Stout.
“The fact that Martland didn’t intervene in the very act,” said Yifen Beus, professor of ICS, “but confronted the accused later might contributed to his discharge.”
Nevertheless she agrees with his act, because, “It’s clearly morally wrong. The villagers don’t like [the practice of child rape] either. It’s a morally wrong military practice and not a culture thing.”
Myer added, “Furthermore a lot of leaders have been replaced by newer leaders who are politically correct. That’s how they ended up doing what is completely opposite of what the military is supposed to be doing.”
Myer said the change in the military happened due to the “new administration since Obama was elected. Under George W. Bush the military enjoyed a lot of support from the nation and the government. When Obama came in they cut back the military’s budget by 25%. There was the impression the new president doesn’t like the military.”
Remembering the impact for good the military did in Iraq, Myer said, the people were so affected they even held elections. “I know many people who served in Iraq and Afghanistan then. They were giving money and support and everything they could t to help these people take control of their lives. When Obama came and took everybody out of Iraq, it crippled everything they did. It has only taken a few years and Iraq is absolutely gone now. They pulled out all their influence and protection.”
Stout added, “Moral decisions aren’t always right or wrong. They are weighting one value over another. So [Martland] is weighting being obedient to authority (what can be a very moral thing) against saving a child. There are two competing moral choices. He has to analyze which one is the most moral.”