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The military services often consign the whole of moral leadership to the realm of rectitude - that is, the individual leader as an upright, honest individual. There is nothing at all wrong with expecting leaders to behave in an ethical manner, but leadership is more complex than that. One could not describe Napoleon as a particularly moral or ethical man - in fact, quite the opposite. Yet, he had great moral authority over his Soldiers.
Why?
There is good reason for demanding that today's leaders be moral in their behavior. It is rather hard to demand high morals from Soldiers if their leaders are not moral themselves. It is just this lack of morality that results in situations such as My Lai.
How do leaders obtain authority? First, they get it through law. There are statutes that govern leadership in the military called Army Regulations, which prescribe penalties if orders are not obeyed. This legal basis for orders has been a vital part of successful military forces, almost since the first Soldiers. Roman infantry leaders, by law, were given enormous control of their Soldiers.
Roman commanders could punish their Soldiers for the simplest offenses. For entire units that did not do their duty in battle, there was the judgment of decimation - the execution of every tenth man until all were gone or the punishment was suspended.
During World War II, commanders also had considerable legal authority, but because of the excesses at Litchfield Disciplinary Barracks in England and the aftermath of the scandal - the Doolittle Board - much of the power of the officer corps to discipline Soldiers at lower levels was taken away. Today, officers have much less legal authority at lower levels.
An officer, or NCO for that matter, achieves authority by being a professional - that is, being a better Soldier than all those under his command. Obviously, Soldiers are not going to follow a complete idiot into battle - at least, not for long.
The Army develops its professional core of officers by using a system of mentoring, increasing responsibilities, and training. Officers start at low levels, and then by both experience and training are entrusted with greater and greater responsibilities. Most armies today use a similar system. It...