Military Orders Essay Example for Free

Military Orders Essay The issue of following military orders from higher ranking military officials that may be unethical has been a disturbing and controversial issue over many years and decades. Many soldiers and service members in general have been put into a situation where they were given in order, knowing well that the situation isn’t right but cannot disobey. The leader giving the order in all likelihood may threaten or set out stiff punishment on to the individual who did not follow the order or hesitates to follow out on the order. It just isn’t fair that these soldiers and service members are put in these situations and get punished for doing the right thing. When this situation may be in question in a court of law because of the severity of the crime, these soldiers may get in trouble for committing the act even though they were just following orders. This is a big problem in the United States military and it’s not fair that these soldiers and service members, who sacrifice their lives for our freedom, are punished and put in this situation. Military members who fail to obey the lawful orders of their superiors risk serious consequences. Article 90 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ) makes it a crime for a military member to willfully  disobey a superior commissioned officer. Article 91 makes it a crime to willfully   disobey a superior Noncommissioned or Warrant Officer. Article 92 makes it a crime to disobey any lawful order (the disobedience does not have to be â€Å"willful† under this article). In fact, under Article 90, during times of war, a military member who willfully disobeys a superior commissioned officer can be sentenced to death (Powers, N/A). The articles that mentioned above clearly state that a service member cannot disobey a lawful order or they will be punished for the crime, under the article covers their punishment. The excuse of just following orders when they are lawful or not is not an excuse nor will it bold well in a military court. Following through with an unlawful order is bad if not worse than disobeying a lawful order. The individuals committing these crimes will be held accountable and will be punished to the fullest extent. In other cases, some service members have made willful decisions in which they have went AWOL from the orders they received and were supposed to report. An example is when an Army flight surgeon who is risking his career to force President Barack Obama to prove he’s a natural born citizen is under investigation by the Army after failing to report for duty in preparation for an Afghanistan deployment. Lt. Col. Terrance Lakin was ordered to report to Fort Campbell, Ky. on April 12 but instead reported to Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, his former assignment (Jordan, 2010). In this situation, Lt. Col. Lakin is committing a willful crime that is illegal under the articles of UCMJ and is only doing this because of his beliefs. His beliefs that President Barrack Obama needs to prove he is a natural born citizen of the United States. Just reading this article, it provides me with this question: Is it really worth getting in trouble and potentially giving up on a well decorated, stable career for just not showing up to your assigned place of duty just for some proof. President Obama was put into office for a reason and like any job out there was checked up upon and is very much qualified for the position. I think this is a bad decision by Lt. Col. Lakin. Giving up so much for this purpose is just plain ridiculous to me. There are also times where groups of soldiers disobey orders set out for them only because they feel for their lives. Maybe, they experienced something before they lead them to disobey the order. In 2004, Jeremy Hudson of the Clarion-Ledger in Jackson, Miss. , the reporter who broke the story about a military unit in Iraq refusing to go on a dangerous mission. The U. S. military unit in Iraq reportedly refused an order to join what the soldiers called a suicide mission to deliver fuel from their base near Nasiriyah to another base near Taji further north. The soldiers were reservists in a Quartermaster Company. They were supposed to deliver fuel. And they had had some concerns previously about delivering the fuel because of, as they termed it, ill-equipped vehicles mainly lacking the proper armor, and even maintenance problems with the vehicles. They had expressed this, from what I have been told, to their commanders, and basically it fell on deaf ears. They got together and talked to their commanders, from what Im told was for some time, and basically got nowhere. So they decided together to not go (Hudson, 2004). In an article in the Lancet (The Lancet, 2011), a survey was conducted 7 to months into a 15 month, intensity combat deployment in Iraq, between December 11, 2007 and January 30, 2008. An infantry brigade combat team soldiers were picked randomly based upon their company and last four digits of each of these soldiers social security number. The following is an a piece of the article explaining the methods conducted to produce this survey. These soldiers were then invited to complete an anonymous survey 3 months after completion of the training. Reports of unethical behavior and attitudes in this sample were compared with a randomly selected pre-training sample from the same brigade. The response patterns for ethical behavior and reporting of ethical violations were analyzed with chi-square analyses. We developed two logistic regression models using self-reported unethical behaviors as dependent variables. Factors associated with unethical conduct, including combat experiences and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), were assessed with validated scales (The Lancet, 2011). 500 random soldiers were selected to take the survey and 421 agreed to do the anonymous post training survey. 97 soldiers completed the pre-training survey. The following is the results of the surveys that these soldiers took. Training was associated with significantly lower rates of unethical conduct of soldiers and greater willingness to report and address misconduct than in those before training. For example, reports of unnecessary damage or destruction of private property decreased from 13 ·6% (54 of 397) before training to 5 ·0% (21 of 421) after training (percent difference ? 63 ·2%), and willingness to report a unit member for mistreatment of a non-combatant increased from 36 ·0% (143 of 397) to 58 ·9% (248 of 421). Nearly all participants (410 [97%]) reported that training made it clear how to respond towards non-combatants. Combat frequency and intensity was the strongest predictor of unethical behavior; PTSD was not a significant predictor of unethical behavior after controlling for combat experiences (The Lancet, 2011). With the results of this survey I have come to the conclusion that training is the key to educate these soldiers on how to handle combat situations. The percentage increased in every topic discussed and it proves the fact that training is the absolute way to help these soldiers learn and understand the rules and regulations. What is lawful and what is not. Also, the soldier rights to disobey an order that is not lawful. There are other unethical matters that deal with the military and orders that are ordered to take place. The issue of a soldier that is wounded/injured in a warzone or a military environment and is taken to a medical facility receives but the soldier makes the decision to refuse the medical attention. What rights does the soldier if any have? Does this soldier have the right to make this decision? By not receiving the medical attention, he or she can affect their own livelihood and also others around them by refusing to get help. In an article by Janet Kelly, of the University of Hull, UK, she presents a few scenarios on about this topic and what happens when a soldier does deny medical treatment. The following paragraph is in the article and shows one of these scenarios. With the examples I provided, I have learned that the United States military strictly punishes its service member with the crimes they commit by going by their governing document of the UCMJ. Following military orders is a strictly enforced. There isn’t any room for error when an order is given unless it is an unlawful order and can be challenged by the service member towards the superior official.

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Animal Testing According to the Foundation for Biomedical Research, â€Å"animal research has had a huge role in almost every major medical related discovery of the past century†. (Jarrett) I believe scientific testing on animals should remain legal, both for human and veterinary health. From blood transfusions to anitbiotics, from chemotherapy to vaccinations, and joint replacement to bypass surgery basically every current day emergency for prevention, treatment, control of disease, pain, and even cure is even based on knowledge achieved through research with lab animals. I believe it should remain legal because, the information we learn from the testing is very helpful, it has helped advancement in products that are used in our everyday lives. â€Å"Animal research and testing has played a part in almost every medical breakthrough of the last century. It has saved hundreds of millions of lives worldwide...† (Ryan) In a survey it has said that 99% of the physicians in the United States, agree that animal research has highly progressed medical research. In fact, almost 97% of those p...

Music Tempo

Since the early Baroque period, tempo markings had been used predominantly with instrumental music. But despite this fact, not all instrumental music had a tempo mark during those times. Composers have been inconsistent in their use of it; however, conductors have often modified a composer’s indications, either because of a different interpretation of the composition or because of the conditions under which it is performed. It was during the era of Ludwig Van Beethoven (1770-1827) tempo markings became necessary which provided metronome markings instead of using descriptive words.Dance and choral music were played at a certain tempo, depending on their style and reflections to the mood of the text. In addition, descriptive tempo markings will most likely present the mood for example, allegro, not only tries to project the thought of quickness but it also conveys brightness. Largo does not only imply slowness but also broadness and expansiveness. Still using today the verbal te mpos frequently together with precise metronome markings are due to the expressive qualities being manifested.Vague idea of speed and notation of confusion will be the results of music being written before the development of particular metronomes. Speed is being indicated as symbols give the number of beats per bar in the system of time signatures being developed during the Renaissance period. Terminologies such as allegro meaning fast, presto as quick and lento being slow are Italian words indicating tempo in the 17th century. To the modern musicians, these words only gave an indistinct concept of speed but for the enthusiasts of contemporary music, customs of tempo were taken as read among composers and nearly all players.Tempo is an Italian word meaning speed or movement. At the top left corner of the musical staff, there could be found an expression that indicates how fast or slow the music should be played. This expression could be a word or a metronome marking. Metronome marki ng is the number of beats occurring in 60 seconds that measures the pace of music. As an example, ‘crotchet=60’ meaning there should be a 60 crotchet beats to the minute, that is to say, one .per second. Tempo is being measured by modern electronic metronomes very accurately.To some performers, they play the tempo according to their preferences and what suit their interpretation of the music. Performers who were encouraged to pay more attention to original tempo markings were caused by the knowledge of performance practice achieved by academic investigation into earlier music. At any one time, some other factors are influencing the choice of tempo, and a critical musical analysis most likely relies on changes in the fundamental tempo throughout a piece such as accelerando which means getting faster, ritardando as getting slower or rubato with a beat that is strictly irregular.The rate of speed is determined by its characteristics, performances’ physical condition s, and the composer’s transmitted instructions. Before the 17th century, from the notation, performers knew the correct tempo, for tempo were related to note values. The adaption of time signatures and tempo marks made visible a variety of durations for any note. The time signature  ¾ gave a quarter note one pulse, 3/2 gave half pulse; 4/8 gave it two pulses. The rate at which these occurred could be modified by the use of tempo markings, such as allegro or andante. A high degree of accuracy in tempo indications was made possible by the invention of the metronome, a device that shows the number of beats per minute.For adagio or very slow tempo, Adagio for Strings by Barber or Trio Sonata in G major by Bach are good sample pieces. Brandenburg Concerto No.6, in B-flat major by Bach and Clarinet Concerto in a major by Mozart are good pieces for allegro that is lively, rather quick. For rather slow, at moderate tempo that is andante, Mozart’s Piano Concerto No.21 in C ma jor is advisable to be listened.For grave, that is extremely low and solemn, Beethoven’s Sonata No.8 in C minor would be the perfect example. And for largo that is slow and broad, Dvorak’s Symphony No.9 in E minor as its corresponding piece. For moderate tempo we have moderato. For the samples, try Shostakovich’s Trio for Violin, Cello, and Piano or Hindemith’s Sonata for Bass, Tuba, and Piano. Mendelssohn’s Symphony No.4 in A major is an excellent musical piece for very quick tempo which is called presto. For quick and lively that is vivace, listen to Clarke’s Sonata for Viola and Piano,II.There are lots of tempo markings. From the fastest to slowest, common markings include prestissimo for extremely fast, vivacissimamente as the adverb of vivacissimo meaning very quickly and lively, vivacissimo for very fast and lively, presto and allegrissimo for very fast, and vivo as lively and fast. Allegro is used for fast and bright or called as a ma rch tempo. Allegro moderato for moderately quick, allegretto used in moderately fast, moderato for moderately, andantino for alternatively faster or slower than andante, andante used at a walking pace, tranquillamante is derived from the adverb of tranquillo meaning tranquilly and tranquillo for tranquil.Adagietto is used for rather slow, adagio for slow and stately, grave for slow and solemn. Larghetto is used for rather broadly, largo for very slow, lento is very slow like largo, largamente largo for broadly and very slow and larghissimo also for very slow. Basically allegro, largo, adagio, vivace, presto, andante and lento are the few root words used in markings.The suffix –issimo when put in the root word makes the tempo amplified. –ino used as suffix makes the tempo reduced and by adding the suffix –etto to the word the tempo becomes endeared. For sudden changes of different tempo in a piece of music, a new tempo will be given also marked the same way. Molt o or un poco are terms used as modifiers. Accelerando is used when tempo is accelerating or getting faster. Ritardando is used when slowing down, ritenuto when slower and rallentado when gradually slower. Poco a poco is used if pertaining to little by little or gradually speed. Rubato is used when speeding up and at the same time relaxes in ways that puts emphasis on the phrasing. Tempo I is used when referring to the original tempo again.ReferencesFarlex, Inc.   (2008). Tempo.   RetrievedApril 22, 2008 from

Danie Theron as a Hero of the Anglo-Boer War

On the 25th of April 1899 Danie Theron, a Krugersdorp attorney, was found guilty of assaulting Mr W. F. Monneypenny, the editor of The Star newspaper, and fined  £20. Monneypenny, who had only been in the South Africa for two months, had written a highly derogatory editorial against the ignorant Dutch. Theron pleaded extreme provocation and his fine was paid by his supporters in the courtroom. So starts the story of one of the Anglo-Boer Wars most illustrious heroes. Danie Theron and the Cycling Corps Danie Theron, who had served in the 1895 Mmalebà ´gà ´ (Malaboch) War, was a true patriot - believing in the just and divine right of the Boer to stand against British interference: Our strength lies in the justice of our cause and in our trust in help from above.1 Before the outbreak of war, Theron and a friend, J. P. Koos Jooste (a cycling champion), asked the Transvaal government if they could raise a cycling corps. (Bicycles had first been used by the US army in the Spanish War, 1898, when a hundred black cyclists under the command of Lt James Moss were rushed in to help with riot control in Havana, Cuba.) It was Therons opinion that using bicycles for dispatch riding and reconnaissance would save horses for use in combat. In order to gain the necessary permission Theron and Jooste had to convince the highly skeptical burghers that bicycles were as good, if not better, than horses. In the end, it took a 75 kilometre race from Pretoria to the Crocodile River Bridge2 in which Jooste, on a bicycle, beat an experienced horse rider, to convince Commandant-General Piet Joubert and President J. P. S. Kruger that the idea was sound. Each of the 108 recruits to the Wielrijeders Rapportgangers Corps (Cycle Dispatch Rider Corps) was supplied with a bicycle, shorts, a revolver and, on special occasion, a light carbine. Later they received binoculars, tents, tarpaulins and wire cutters. Therons corps distinguished themselves in Natal and on the western front, and even before the war had started had provided information about British troop movements beyond the Transvaals western border.1 By Christmas 1899, Capt Danie Therons dispatch rider corps were experiencing poor deliveries of supplies at their outposts on the Tugela. On the 24th December Theron complained to the Supplies Commission that they were severely neglected. He explained that his corps, who were always in the vanguard, were far from any railway line where supplies were unloaded and his wagons regularly returned with the message that there were no vegetables since everything had been carted off to the laagers surrounding Ladysmith. His complaint was that his corps did both dispatch riding and reconnaissance work, and that they were also called upon to fight the enemy. He wanted to offer them better sustenance than dried bread, meat and rice. The result of this plea earned Theron the nickname of Kaptein Dik-eet (Captain Gorge-yourself) because he catered so well for his corps stomachs!1 The Scouts Are Moved to the Western Front As the Anglo-Boer War progressed, Capt Danie Theron and his scouts were moved to the western front and the disastrous confrontation between the British forces under Field Marshal Roberts and the Boer forces under General Piet Cronje. After a long and hard struggle up the Modder River by the British forces, the siege of Kimberly had finally been broken and Cronje was falling back with a vast train of wagons and many women and children - the families of the Commandos. General Cronje almost slipped through the British cordon, but eventually was forced to form a laager by the Modder near Paardeberg, where they dug in ready for a siege. Roberts, temporarily indisposed with the flu, passed command to Kitchener, who faced with a drawn-out siege or an all-out infantry attack, chose the latter. Kitchener also had to deal with rearguard attacks by Boer reinforcements and the approach of further Boer forces under General C. R. de Wet. On the 25th of February, 1900, during the  Battle of Paardeberg,  Capt. Danie Theron bravely crossed the British lines and entered Cronjes laager in an effort to co-ordinate a breakout. Theron, initially traveling by bicycle2, had to crawl for much of the way, and is reported to have had a conversation with British guards before crossing the river. Cronje was willing to consider a breakout but felt it necessary to put the plan before a council of war. The following day, Theron sneaked back to De Wet at Poplar Grove and informed him that the council had rejected the breakout. Most of the horses and draught animals had been killed and the burgers were worried about the safety of the women and children in the laager. Additionally, officers had threatened to stay in their trenches and surrender if Cronje gave the order to breakout. On the 27th, despite a passionate plea to his officers by Cronje to wait just one more day, Cronje was forced to surrender. The humiliation of surrender w as made much worse because this was Majuba Day. This was one of the main turning points of the war for the British. On the 2nd of March a council of war at Poplar Grove gave Theron permission to form a Scout Corps, consisting of about 100 men, to be called the Theron se Verkenningskorps (Theron Scouting Corps) and subsequently known by the initials TVK. Curiously, Theron now advocated the use of horses rather than bicycles, and each member of his new corps was provided with two horses. Koos Jooste was given command of the Cycling Corps. Theron achieved a certain notoriety in his remaining few months. The TVK were responsible for destroying railway bridges and captured several British officers. As a result of his endeavors a newspaper article, 7th April 1900, reported that Lord Roberts labeled him the chief thorn in the side of the British and had put a bounty on his head of  £1,000, dead or alive. By July Theron was considered such an important target that the Theron and his scouts were attacked by General Broadwood and 4 000 troops. A running battle ensued during which the TVK lost eight scouts killed and the British lost five killed and fifteen wounded. Therons catalogue of deeds is vast considering how little time he had left. Trains were captured, railway tracks dynamited, prisoners freed from a British jail, he had earned the respect of his men and his superiors. Therons Last Battle On the 4th September 1900 in the Gatsrand, near Fochville, Commandant Danie Theron was planning an attack with General Liebenbergs commando on General Harts column. Whilst out scouting to discover why Leibenberg was not at the agreed position, Theron ran into seven members of Marshalls Horse. During the resultant fire fight Theron killed three and wounded the other four. The columns escort was alerted by the firing and immediately charged up the hill, but Theron managed to avoid capture. Finally the columns artillery, six field guns and 4.7 inch navel gun, were unhitched and the hill bombarded. The legendary Republican hero was killed in an inferno of lyddite and shrapnel3. Eleven days later, the body of Commandant Danie Theron was exhumed by his men and later reburied next to his late fiancà ©e, Hannie Neethling, at her fathers farm of Eikenhof, Klip River. Commandant Danie Therons death earned him immortal fame in Afrikaner history. On learning of Therons death, De Wet said: Men as lovable or as valiant there might be, but where shall I find a man who combined so many virtues and good qualities in one person? Not only had he the heart of a lion but he also possessed consummate tact and the greatest energy... Danie Theron answered the highest demands that could be made on a warrior1. South Africa remembered its hero by naming their School of Military Intelligence after him. References 1. Fransjohan Pretorius, Life on Commando during the Anglo-Boer war 1899 - 1902, Human and Rousseau, Cape Town, 479 pages, ISBN 0 7981 3808 4. 2. D. R. Maree,  Bicycles in the Anglo Boer war of 1899-1902. Military History Journal, Vol. 4 No. 1 of the South African Military History Society. 3. Pieter G. Cloete, The Anglo-Boer War: a chronology, J.P van de Walt, Pretoria,351 pages, ISBN 0 7993 2632 1.