Accountability coincides with expectations, if something is expected from a subordinate and they do not meet that expectation, it is a problem. The book “Black Hearts” mainly focuses on an atrocious offense that took place in Iraq during March of 2006. Four United States Soldiers were under the influence of alcohol while guarding a traffic control point. While drunk on post, the soldiers planned to commit a crime. The soldiers left their assigned guard post in the cover of the night and made their way to a house in a small Iraqi village. They raped a fourteen-year-old Iraqi girl named Abeer then proceeded to murder Abeer, her younger sister, and their parents. The soldiers then poured kerosene on Abeer’s lifeless body and lit her on fire. They turned on the kitchen’s propane tank in attempt to blow up the house and cover up the crime scene. The four soldiers then ran back to their traffic control point. At first, they were winded, nervous, and scared but once their safety took hold, they started celebrating. They cheered of how “great” what they had accomplished was. All of the soldiers that were involved to include those that knew about the crime were eventually convicted by either civilian court or military courts martial resulting in dishonorable discharge, administrative separation, and prison sentences that range from 27 months to life in prison. If one of the soldiers would have held the others accountable by stopping them or by notifying the chain of command, the acts that occurred on that day may have been prevented. It is important that a culture of accountability is constantly fostered. An environment where military members account for themselves as well as others will have a powerful positive impact. Accountability is a must have for all effective
A court-martial named William Calley is a platoon leader for the U.S. in Charlie Company. He led his men into a Vietnamese Massacre. But before doing so he completed basic training when he was 23. March of 1967 Officer Candidacy School accepted him and he went six months of junior officer training. After that was complete he got a promotion to be lieutenant. On March 16, 1968 Calley commanded his men to land at My Lai. On March 16, 1968, Soldiers of the Charlie Company which is a unit of Americal Division’s arrived in My Lai in the north part of South Vietnam. The company had been on a search and destroy mission as a part of a year long operation. While they were searching for the 48th Viet Cong Local Force Battalion, the soldiers entered
The only way for a portion of the crew members to live was for numerous men to die. In this situation, I think that this was the best situation. I think that my personal morals do have been madealign with positively with Commander Oram’s decision partly because he made the best out of a strenuous situation. I think that if I had been in that particular situation, I would have done the same thing but alternately, I would have made everyone write a goodbye letter to their loved ones. That way, the families of those who died would have some sort of closure. I think that Commander Oram should be remembered as someone who made the best out of a difficult situation. I would say that it is possible to be a hero and a murderer at the same time. A similar example is war. In order for people to survive, people will have to be killed. I believe that he is something in-between a hero and a villain. To me it matters that Oram died because if he hadn’t decided to kill himself, I would think that he would be a murderer not a hero.
In 1971, Philip Zimbardo set out to conduct an experiment to observe behavior as well as obedience. In Philip Zimbardo’s Stanford Prison experiment, many dispute whether it was obedience or merely conforming to their predesigned social roles of guards and prisoners that transpired throughout the experiment. Initially, the experiment was meant to test the roles people play in prison environment; Zimbardo was interested in finding out whether the brutality reported among guards in American prisons was due to the sadistic personalities of the guards, disposition, or had more to do with the prison environment. This phenomenon has been arguably known to possibly influencing the catastrophic similarities which occurred at Abu Ghraib prison in 2003.The
The nature of the enemy was changing and as there was conflicting guidance from MG Odierno to use more force and COL Rudesheim to use more non-lethal methods to combat the enemy, whoever that was. LTC Sassaman viewed COL Rudesheim as the desk jockey who did not really know what was going on in the field, and as a result of the conflict in guidance, discipline started to break down within the battalion. LTC Sassaman did not have a “how to” manual on how to combat insurgency and at the same time stand up a government. LTC Sassaman points out in the case study that the intent of the Soldiers who forced the two Iraqi’s over the bridge were not criminal. The decision by LT Saville to make these civilians jump into the Tigris River as a non-lethal threat describes the permissive attitude allowed that leads to unethical behavior in combat. There was no standard operating procedure for unethical behavior and is there one today beyond the army core values? The case study also stated LTC Sassaman’s superiors were not reprimanded or reviewed for their part in this unethical behavior of 1-8 IN BN. The generals in charge failed to have a clear battle plan, and left it at the battalion, company and platoon level to figure out, which set many Soldiers up to fail in this chaotic theater of operations during this
Stanford Prison Experiment is a popular experiment among social science researchers. In 1973, a psychologist named Dr. Philip Zimbardo wants to find out what are the factors that cause reported brutalities among guards in American prisons. His aim was to know whether those reported brutalities were because of the personalities of the guards or the prison environment. However, during the experiment, things get muddled unexpectedly. The experiment became controversial since it violates some ethical standards while doing the research.
Philip Zimbardo questioned, “What happens when you put good people in an evil place? Does humanity win over evil, or does evil triumph?” (Zimbardo, 1971) In 1971 a psychologist named Philip Zimbardo conducted an experiment on the effects prison has on young males with the help of his colleague Stanley Milgram. They wanted to find out if the reports of brutality from guards was due to the way guards treated prisoners or the prison environment. Zimbardo offered $15 per day for two weeks to take part in the experiment. The experiment was held in the basement of Stanford University Psychology building; they turned it into a mock prison.
Instead of having the men arrested he made them run around the base with him and into mountain trails as punishment. He did this because he considered the 2nd and 3rd order effects for calling the military police such as jail, which would remove the men when his unit was already undermanned as well as tying up Army’s law enforcement
Introductory Textbooks know that they don’t need the Stanford Prison Experiment to be awesome since the belief is that they’re already awesome. You and I might not share the same opinions but who knew textbooks could be all that. Which is ironic because The Stanford Prison Experiment is one of the most famous experiments in psychological history. Haslam and Reicher say the SPE website receives 7,000 visitors each day. Richard Griggs asks the question, is with the Stanford Prison having such prestige, why don’t some textbooks include this famous experiment and critiques?
First, the United States Marines mission was to seize all the Japanese airfields (Jima), and that was very difficult because the Japanese didn’t care if they died they were expendable but the United States Marines were not and still aren’t because we want all of our troops to live not die. Secondly, there were over 40,000 casualties in the Battle of Iwo Jima (Mueller, Luke), like many people had children and families that cared for them and that battlefield changed it all. Finally, U.S Marines raided Japanese home islands because that was their mission and I think that was wrong of them, and that was very rude of them to do that. “Casualties in World War II numbered in the millions” and that is terrible because our troops are not expendable but they had to do what they had to do in order to help stop World War
Just because one soldier claimed that he was treated well, does not account for the fact that eighty four American soldiers were slaughtered by Peiper 's division, which makes Peiper accountable. Peiper 's sentence lawfully and fairly punished him for his ruthless actions and disregard for human life.
Downey were willing to accept the charges and consequences of their actions because it was in the name of their “code”. Why should they be defended if they are willing to accept the consequences for their actions? They believe in their code which is Unit Corps God Country, their priorities are in the order they are written (unit is the most important). Someone in a rank above them ordered them to do something they will do it no matter what because their beliefs are surrounded by their code. In the movie there is a scene where Lance Corporal Dawson and Pfc. Downey were offered to go to prison for 6 months compared to 12 years, and they refused it. Their reasoning was that they would much rather accept their full punishment rather than dishonor their unit, and the corps. There is no reason for Lance Corporal Dawson and Pfc. Downey to have a lawyer if they accept the charges! Lastly, if Lt. Kaffee were to stay he would be risking multiple things! If Lt. Kaffee enters court- his first court- and loses, it will severely damage his reputation as a lawyer; that could lead to people no longer giving him jobs because they don’t trust that he will do well in
The Stanford Prison Experiment was an experiment to see if normal people would change their behavior in a role-play as a prisoner or a prison guard. The experiment was conducted by Dr.Philip Zimbardo in 1973 at Stanford University that caused numerous amount of trauma to prisoners by prison guards in their role-playing position which forced Dr. Zimbardo to officially terminate the experiment six days after it was introduced. Due to the cruel aggressive behaviors from the guards, the experiment led to a question, "Do "normal" people have the capability of behaving badly?" The answer to that question is that most likely an individual who behave normally will have the capability of expressing evil behavior due to the environment that they are surrounded. The supreme power of authority and having no remorse feelings with the addition of having an influence environment are the
Authority gives a person the chance to feel superior, and as seen throughout this film, those within the position of authority will only then abuse this opportunity. Given the chance for people to gain authority or rather the sense of authority is enough to awaken the evil within. Within the movie, The Stanford Prison Experiment the guards were enabled to set a line of difference between the prisoners and themselves. They were able to make the prisoners feel weak or emasculated, forcing the students to strip and wear the assigned prison clothes that barely covered their genitals (Alvarez). Forcing the prisoners to wear these feminine articles of clothing and assigning them a number, gives the opportunity to strip away their personality and
One of the most infamous experiments conducted in the history of psychology was the Stanford Prison Experiment. The main objective of this experiment was to see what effects would occur when a psychological experiment into human nature was performed. As I read through the material provided, I noticed that my thoughts on the matter were similar to many; that it was a complete failure as a scientific research project. However, his findings did provide us with something much more important that is still being talked about today; insight into human psychology and social behavior.