CRANFIELD UNIVERSITY DAREN BOWYER JUST WAR DOCTRINE

…the cooking of news before it was served up to the public in England was a
prime factor in unsettling opinion in France. Men could not help seeing that this
news was altered not because it gave information to the enemy for they already
knew it; they were left to speculate in whose interests such editing was carried
out. … Bad enough to find – and they often did find – that the mental outfit for
leadership was wanting, but what of this cynicism at the top? … Men began to
ask themselves in dumb dismay what was the good of it all. Authority declined,
scepticism grew apace, men became critical. 237
Interestingly, in 2004 a Daily Telegraph article 238 reported a leaked advance copy of the
UK Chief of the General Staff’s Briefing Team report disclosing a considerable degree
of disenchantment with what soldiers saw as the uncritical downward passage by the
chain of command of ‘Government spin’ to support justification for the war in Iraq.
Anthony Kellett 239 concludes that ideology (in which we can include belief in the
justification of the conflict) plays a role in motivating soldiers before and after but
rarely during combat. Critically, and echoing Montgomery, he notes that ‘a loss of faith
on the part of the ideologically committed soldiers makes them prone to
demoralization.’ Moreover, when it comes to ‘military values and honor codes’ – and
historically these can be shown to include the principles of jus in bello – then Kellett’s
conclusion is that ‘those who subscribe to them – particularly professional officers and
senior non-commissioned officers – are likely to be strongly influenced by them in their
combat behaviour, especially in the provision of exemplary leadership. Military values,
therefore, have an influence disproportionate to the number of adherents.’
Demoralization of this cadre, then, is likely to have a disproportionate effect on the
whole.
The need to differentiate between regulars and conscripts/short-term volunteers has
already been noted. Kellett observes that ‘short service soldiers have shown themselves
more likely to be influenced by such factors (as) self-discipline, short-term group
affiliation, ideology, and home front attitudes.’ 240 The latter two are directly related to
issues of cause and justification, so Kellett’s conclusion would seem to support a view
that justification will be a motivator, or its absence a demotivator, particularly for the
part-timers and reservist who are becoming an essential part of military capability today
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