Military Ethics
Ethics in the military is a subject frequently commented on. Many, both in and out of the service, don't believe there's any such thing as an ethical system in the military, but they're wrong, possibly because they really don't understand what 'ethics' is.
The Webster's New World Dictionary defines ethics as, "the system of morals of a particular person, religion, group, etc." The definition does not attempt to rate the relative 'goodness' or 'badness' of any given system, because such a rating is irrelevant. A 'bad' system is just as much a 'system' as is a 'good' system. The relative difference between any two systems is just that, a relative difference. Very broad agreement about what constitutes 'good' and 'bad' allows a surprisingly broad variety of ethical systems to exist side by side. Many people think of the military as an organization that exists to kill, and are unable to reconcile that incorrect world view with the existence of any kind of 'moral' or 'ethical' system, because most commonly accepted ethical systems rate killing as an unacceptable act.
People have difficulty accepting that there can be anyone fundamentally different from themselves. If they do believe someone is significantly different; the simple solution is to demonize that group or person. This is the normal state of affairs between many civilian societies and their military counterparts.
All societies, military or civil, have some ethical system. Not all of them are to everyone's liking. Not all of them are 'good' systems; but most of them are not 'bad' systems. I define a 'bad' ethical system as one that allows any action if it is directed toward non members of the group. The Nazi and Communist systems of mid century were good examples of intolerant and abusive, or 'bad', systems. A 'bad' system hurts people when it's not really necessary.
A 'good' system would treat all members of all groups with the same respect, and would tolerate no improper actions toward anyone. Many ethical systems strive towards this goal, but I don't know of any that have actually achieved it. Most systems espouse decent treatment of non members, unless there is a threat to the group. The concept of self defense allows some pretty extreme acts, so long as they are defensive rather than offensive.
The ethics of most military forces generally mirror the ethics of the society that they are a part of. The aspects that distinguish the military systems from their civilian counterparts are based on those forces being the defense for their respective countries. As the defenders of the country, additional ethics are necessary.
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