“Close the door behind you,” I ordered, as the final officer-candidate, a young girl barely out of her teens, came in. “Take a seat and sit down. We have a lot to cover and very little time.” She sat down and eyed me nervously. “The first thing you all have to understand is that there are no ranks in this room. What does that mean?”
“That you’re going to be talking to us as equals?” Captain Jörgen Hellqvist guessed. He, at least, was someone I wasn’t so worried about. He’d done well in the recent fighting against the Communists. “Sir, I…”
“No ranks in this room,” I repeated. “There’s a reason for that and we will get to it in time, but for the moment, no ranks in the room.”
Jörgen took a breath. “Understood, sir,” he said. I rolled my eyes, but said nothing; clearly, some habits were hard to break. “What are you going to tell us?”
“On Earth, this was known as the Candidate’s Choice,” I said. “There’s a lot of history behind it, which I won’t burden you with, but the basics were that the officer-candidate would be tossed into a situation where he would have to make hard decisions about the lives and careers of his men, the men placed in his hands. It wasn’t an entirely fair test because a candidate could be denounced for political incorrectness and perhaps even nationalist thoughts rather than simply being an incompetent asshole, but it forced a young officer to come face to face with the harsh realities of their position. Some refused promotion and returned to the ranks, others preferred to transfer sideways into the supply department and other non-fighting sections of the Peace Force, leaving those who decided to go on to… well, go on.
“On Heinlein, it is referred to as the History and Moral Philosophy class,” I continued. “The candidates are given far harder problems to solve, but they don’t have to worry about pleasing their instructions politically. On the downside, they do have to pass the test to gain promotion, unless they gain a promotion under fire — stepping into dead men’s shoes, as we call it. You’ve all been through the fire far earlier than I expected, and you’ve all done well in drills and training exercises, but you all have one major handicap. What, pray tell, is it?”
“We’re all from this planet?” The girl — Captain Elsa Björkgren — hazarded. “We’re not part of your group of mercenaries?”
“No,” I said, with a half-smile. I had underestimated the resentment some of the locals felt, although it would have amused them to learn that we weren’t paid much more than they were. “Another guess, anyone?”
There was a long pause. “No guess?” I asked, finally. “It’s simple. You’re all very — very — inexperienced. If it had been entirely up to me, I would have sent your units officers culled from my men and used the additional time to bring you up to standard as quickly as I could. That was out of the question; therefore I have little choice, but to trust you with companies of men, knowing that your inexperience might get them killed. Do you understand me now?”
I went on before they could answer. “Tell me something,” I said, calmly. “What is the purpose of an army?”
“To defend the planet?” Jörgen asked. “That’s what we were doing against the Communists, wasn’t it?”
“In a manner of speaking,” I replied. “Anyone else?”
One of the Captains I didn’t know spoke into the silence. “To provide a useful place for those in society who will fight?”
“That sounds like the UN definition,” I commented, dryly. “The UN created an army that was a massive — and largely useless — blunt instrument. The Peace Force was so badly hobbled by their superior officers that it wasn’t even remotely capable of keeping the peace. Although the UN would prefer to believe otherwise, most people will fight if they feel that there is no choice, but to fight or die. You might take the other fellow with you, if nothing else.”
There were a handful of chuckles. “So,” I said. “One final guess?”
Elsa smiled. “To protect the people?”
“Again, in a manner of speaking,” I said. “I’ll save you the effort of thinking and toss in an answer. An army exists to defend society. Discuss.”
Jörgen frowned. “But that was what I said,” he protested. “I said that an army exists to protect and defend the planet.”
I smiled. “But what planet?” I asked. “Svergie was settled by a small group, then it was a UN-occupied world, and then finally it became independent again. If the Communists had won and created a Communist world, there would have been yet another Svergie society. If someone declared themselves King of the World and somehow managed to make the title stick, they’d have created a fifth society. Which one does the Army exist to defend?”
They chewed on that for a moment. “The answer is fairly simple,” I said. “The army exists to defend society.”
“But that’s what you said,” Elsa said, puzzled. “They’re all societies, so the army…”
She broke off. “The army here exists to defend our society, right?”
“As good an answer as you will probably get, for the moment,” I said, and leaned back in my chair. “Throughout history, force — normally expressed through an army, although some nations used navies instead — has served as the ultimate guarantee of a state’s existence. An army that is incapable, or unwilling, to uphold the state is something that will ensure that the state will not last long. The vast majority of states that… were terminated by the UN had rotted away from the inside a long time before the UN was anything more than a debating shop.
“But even that is an incomplete answer,” I continued, “and we need to look at different types of state to understand the role of their armies. A leader state depends on a single leader and the army may swear personal loyalty to him — or her. A bureaucratic state is run by the bureaucrats and the army may be loyal to them, or to the symbol of state, or it may have no loyalties at all. A democratic state, one where the people choose their own government, generally has the army swearing loyalty to the system, rather than to the current leader.
“On Svergie, you would call that the Constitution. It provides the guidelines for the system that elects and rejects new rulers. It provides the means for the people’s will to be felt and leaders to be exchanged. It even provides the means for change within itself without the need for a violent and bloody revolution. The Communists didn’t step beyond the pale for being Communists, but for their wanton attack on society and their attempt to destroy the glue binding it together. Your oath, the one I wrote with the President’s input, swore loyalty to that Constitution. Was that a wise choice?”
They hesitated, perhaps suspecting a trap. “I think so,” Elsa said, finally. “If we weren’t loyal to the system, we’d be… just another militia.”
“Quite right,” I agreed. “In a leader state, the army enforces the will of the leader. In a bureaucratic state, the army enforces the will of the bureaucrats. In a democratic state, the army upholds the system that keeps it democratic. You — all of you — have sworn to uphold the Constitution to the best of your ability. Would you serve a tyrant?”
“No,” Jörgen said, flatly. “I don’t want to… bully people just because someone tells me I should.”
“But if the orders are legal,” another Captain asked, “should they not be obeyed?”
“If they’re illegal orders,” a third asked, “who is to blame for following them?”
I smiled. “It’s good to see that you are beginning to think,” I said. I pointed a long finger at Jörgen. “Jörgen, I don’t like Elsa. Rape her.”
There was a long chilling silence. “Sir…” Jörgen stammered, finally. “Sir, I can’t do that because…”