The first duty of an officer is to gain his objective, to fulfill his mission. Inevitably, waging war and winning battles cost lives and casualties. Indeed, the officer planning the mission is often apprised by the equivalent of insurance actuaries the expected number of dead so he can order up the required number of body bags.
Knowing that his order inevitably will kill some of his men, the commander must nevertheless accomplish his mission. The American army takes endless pains to substitute matériel for bodies. We indulge massive amounts of training. Our medical treatment of the wounded has never been equaled in the history of war and it clearly saves an astonishing number of lives. Yet…
Yet that commander if not a psychopath must be racked with guilt because he must somehow rationalize that the mission is more important than his men's lives. That is why officers have historically been required to be men of honor because their moral ordeal tests the limit of their temporal and spiritual decency and sanity.
The Soviet army historically has failed to create a culture in which officers are concerned with the welfare of their men, indeed, the culture of the Soviet army is one of brutality and indifference to the fate of their own enlisted personnel. Historically, the Soviet army sacrifices its soldiers with a profligacy that is shocking.
This is something that has to be addressed not from the top down but created from the bottom up. This is why cheating scandals, for example, at West Point are an existential threat to the Army. Our officers must simply be above reproach but humble in the daunting tensions of their profession.
