US Army's 6 January Test

Military service is a demanding profession requiring great material and moral sacrifice, but it is a profession with high moral satisfaction. Soldiers do not think about the material reward while fulfilling their duties. The greatest reward for them is the pride and spiritual peace of mind that comes from fulfilling their duty properly. For this reason, it is a generally accepted view that military service is a way of life rather than a profession, and that those who become soldiers once will remain soldiers for life. Thus, people who have sworn to ‘gladly sacrifice their lives for the sake of the homeland, the republic and duty when necessary’ must have a high sense of dedication that covers all areas and stages of their lives. As a result of the internalisation of professional values and wholehearted adherence to these values, soldiers have a strong character, are reliable and do not deviate from rights and law. Naturally, there may be people among soldiers who have attitudes and behaviours outside of this ideal description. 

The 1992 film ‘A Few Good Men’ deals with the legal system in military service through concepts such as chain of command, discipline, honour, pride and sense of duty. Although it is debatable to what extent the fiction in the film is compatible with the ordinary flow of life and reality, some of the conceptual issues related to military service and law are noteworthy. The film's prominent themes are the innocence of the two privates accused of murder for allegedly following the ‘code red’ order given to them, and the guilt of the Colonel, the base commander who gave the order that led to the death of private Santiago, who failed to meet the standards of the unit. In the final scene of the film, when the lawyer defending the accused privates succeeds in getting the base commander to confess his guilt, the Colonel tries to justify himself through concepts such as military service and national security. As a result, the Colonel is found guilty and arrested. One of the most basic messages of the film is that there can be no rules in military service other than the rules set by laws and regulations, and that anyone who acts outside of these rules must be held accountable before the law, regardless of their rank.

Discipline, which forms the basis of military life, also constitutes the basis of soldiers' understanding of law. Discipline is defined as ‘absolute obedience to laws, orders and superiors and respect for the law of subordinates and superiors’ (1). Undisciplined behaviour, i.e. indiscipline, is to act against the law. The use of concepts with high moral value such as ‘religion, homeland, nation, flag and banner’ as the basis of an unlawful act does not legitimise the crime. It is important for soldiers to be aware of the law and to act within legal boundaries both in terms of military functioning and the functioning of a democratic social order based on the rule of law. 

In the nineties, the world moved away from the atmosphere of cooperation, disarmament and general peace that emerged after the end of the Cold War and entered an environment where global polarisation and tensions increased and armament accelerated with the spread of hot conflict areas.  While the prioritisation of security policies increases the attractiveness of authoritarian regimes, authoritarianisation tendencies are also observed in democracies, and populist politicians are gaining more popular support. The natural consequence of authoritarianism is the departure from the law, the increase in arbitrary and illegitimate approaches and policies and their acceptance by the public. In the USA, which claims to be the leader of pluralist, liberal democratic governments, the effort of a group of demonstrators on 06 January 2021 to prevent the approval of the results by storming the Congress building upon Trump's discourses questioning the validity of the election results is impressive in terms of showing the extent such tendencies can reach. The failure of Trump's effort was influenced by the fact that the US institutions stood behind the legitimate authority and defended the rule of law. In a speech he delivered on 29 September 2023, the then Chief of the General Staff Mark Milley stated that the US Army had sworn to protect the Constitution ‘against all enemies, foreign and domestic’, thus revealing its principled view of the events of 06 January. (2) As a matter of fact, the Army was among the institutions that contributed to the peaceful transition of power by not going beyond its constitutional duty in the biggest political crisis in US history. 

Periods in which the international system undergoes structural changes also have shocking effects on the political and social orders of states. The events leading up to and following the Congressional raid have shown that polarisation and tensions arising from problems in the socio-economic structure of the USA can create consequences that threaten the political system. The strength of democratic systems based on the rule of law can be understood in the face of adverse effects. In this respect, the US political system has suffered a significant loss of credibility in this challenge. On the other hand, the strength of political systems depends on the extent to which their main institutions embrace political values. While the behaviour of the US Army demonstrated its loyalty to the constitutional order, it also revealed the importance of the military's high sensitivity to legal legitimacy in times of increasing authoritarian political tendencies. As the US enters an election process with the same candidates, it is a matter of curiosity how the political system and its institutions, especially the Army, will be tested.

References

(1) Armed Forces Internal Service Law, Article 13.

(2) Tara Copp and Lolita C. Baldor, ‘Gen. Milley Delivers Defence of Democracy and Swipes at Trump in Farewell Address", 29 September 2023, https://apnews.com/article/milley-trump-biden-democracy-military-d2abb76858291c87ae856f91e9556d8e, accessed 30.04.2024.