Accountability in Military PDF

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How accountability in military shapes society...

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Accountability is very essential ingredient and one of the most important responsibilities of military leadership. Non-Commissioned officers, support channel or chain of commands are all equally responsible and accountable for any wrongdoings and misdeeds on the basis of false judgments. Accountability in military is the obligation imposed by legal forums or law on commanding body to maintain integrity while using property, documents or funds. It primarily focuses upon records. It is sole responsibility of NCO to keep proper record and use the items (like weapons, NVG’s clothiers, vehicle etc.) issued to him with utmost integrity. Accountability also ensures that soldier should be taken care off. Army has already spent large sum of money on the training and equipment of soldier. Combats are very anarchical .Anything could happen to soldier. Hence accountability demands that higher command or squad leader should be very careful about soldiers. He/she should know where his/her team soldier is fighting and where his/her equipment is. Army’s big asset is soldier and his equipment. No matter what the circumstances, soldier and his commanding leader are always accountable for equipment. All the lower and higher squad is equally accountable for military’s assets. Another core aspect of accountability is to be on time. Soldiers are always expected to take care of their appointments and meet deadlines with punctuality. They are supposed to be present at required places when called upon on time. Taking wrong direction and doing miscalculated step can ruin the situation in different combats. Military starts the day with morning formation. All the soldiers are made accountable and shout out the information that should necessarily be dealt with. Accountability ensures the presence of everyone and keeps check on what is going around. Its importance elevates when soldiers are on holidays. US army emphasizes a lot on accountability. Soldiers are expected to be dependable. They arrive on time for work and mundane tasks. Accountability in US military constitutes of custody, safety, and care. Army strictly deals with the matters pertaining accountability so it is never taken lightly. Biggest risk with being un-accountable is that you might put yourself and your life under stake. Accountability involves acceptance of responsibility and presenting the outcome with honesty and transparency. Military also accounts physical and mental health of soldier. Only well-functioning and strong soldiers can perform well hence mental health is also considered important in US military. All the soldiers are considered responsible for their certain actions. Accountability enables US military to keep track record of soldiers and easily called for tasks at once when needed. It also safe keeps military assets like documents and weapons that are crucial for security and safety. Army takes strict actions against the soldiers that violate accountability norms. It gives them signals that something uncertain might have happened that put the life of soldier and weapon at risk. So accountability formation minimizes that risk. Without accountability, things could run out of control and chaos could rise that can put all the plans at risk in combat. Mobile technology has also eased the process of accountability in military. Now squad leader can keep the track of soldiers by contacting through their numbers. If any soldier is in danger then all the other team members can be called upon at once to save the important missions. It had made it easier to the soldiers to remain in contact during difficult environments of combat. Buddies assigned to everyone can also help in maintaining accountability in military. Assigned Buddy will ensure that everything is ok and all the plans are carried out successfully. It also provides a support system to soldier when life is at risk or certain other hurdles are coming in the way. Accountability is also essential for the other spheres of life. Civilian life is also crucial sometime and accountability helps to maintain check on certain different activities. In morning formation NCO channel plays vital role. It ensures that every team member is present. If someone is absent then information is passed to platoon sergeant. Then this whole chain of commands start until information needed for future is put out. Location process carried out whole command channel ensures availability of all soldiers and soldiers are also accounted for it. We can

witness the importance of accountability during deployments and missions. The instant missions require that soldiers are always ready. During natural calamities, terror attacks and other instant events, the role of accountability becomes more heightened for all chain of commands and soldiers. Many times when soldiers are kidnaped or they are fund depressed, squad leader assigns another soldier to take care of each other so that depressed soldier doesn’t end up killing himself. So accountability helps whole mission team to carry out tasks with responsibility and ensure safety and care of other members. Absence of soldier from its assigned place during very sensitive and precarious mission can prove futile for whole mission.it can put the life of all the soldiers at great risk. Let’s take the example of grand mission conducted my US military and intelligence against Osama Bin Laden ( the leader of terrorist organization Al Qaeda and mastermind of twin tower attacks).Osama Bin Laden was killed by US military in after very sensitive planning in Pakistan. He was inhabited in a compound near Abbottabad. Team SEAL succeeded to complete its target mission of killing Osama Bin Laden and returned back to Afghanistan. If we imagine that team of Military and intelligence soldiers had missed the track of unit. It had severely damaged the whole sensitive mission and had put the life of whole team in danger. So accountability is must in any sphere. All the properly accounted assets of military can be used at once when needed to execute the plans. Financial balance is also not possible without proper accountability of military weapons, and records. This also entrenches positive behavioral changes in soldiers by making them responsible and disciplined; a crucial aspect of soldier that essentially helps in winning the battles. Soldiers try to train themselves to avoid the charges of losing the weapons due to being unaccountable. Soldier’s best strategy is to be accountable of them and their equipment assigned to them for different purposes. Those soldiers, in reward, are also valued and cherished more for fulfilling their duties with accountability and responsibility. Those soldiers who do their work as guided and ordered are also considered reliable soldiers. Reliability is core for military sphere. A reliable soldier is trusted by its supervisor and can also be promoted early due to following commands issues by its commander. Pentagon tried to find the soldier who bombed the Saudi Air force compound. It succeeded in identifying the officer who was responsible for security lapses which made their airmen vulnerable killing 19 of them. Then defense secretary took strict notice against that officer and denied promotion to that officer. Mr. Cohen at the time of bombing delivered the speech by providing strict message to the officer. He directed the military services vehemently and made it clear that everyone in command channel is responsible and accountable for failures. Yet it is a common blame on US military that generals are not treated with same charges as small unit officers. So accountability makes US military more confident, responsible and efficient....