"War is inherently corrupting."
In this CoveTalk, COL Tom McDermott examines the human dimensions of combat, exploring how the physical and psychological stressors of war influence individual and group behaviour. Drawing on history, behavioural science, and the group dynamics, he discusses why ethical failures can occur in conflict and the responsibilities of leaders to build cultures, standards, and systems that help prevent them.
This presentation challenges Army professionals to think beyond compliance alone, considering how leadership, training, accountability, and professional identity shape behaviour under the extreme pressures of war. It is an important discussion for anyone seeking to better understand the relationship between combat, ethics, and the enduring responsibilities of command.
About the Speaker
COL Tom McDermott is an Australian Army officer, and a student of strategy and ethics. He is currently serving as the Director of the Chief of Army’s Initiatives Group.
Clearly from the many reports of abuses of the laws of armed conflict across Anglo-American armies - we have a problem. I use the term Anglo-American, because we draw our heritage from the former, and laud the power of the later. Given the history of abuses culminating in the Brereton Report we have a multi-rank, multi-unit problem. Multi-rank, because we don’t know where knowledge of abuses ended and multi-unit, since SOComd has pedestal status and as such influences the rank and file. Listen to the dialogue amongst the troops to see that is true.
I consider the demonisation of our opponents as the core problem. Hatred is a powerful tool to overcome moral restraint, both individually and as a group. And as you pointed out reliance on authority (commanders, politicians, priests, journalists, white coats etc) is also a justification of abuse. The two work together where authorities create hatred and simultaneously justify deviation from our moral codes.
As moral creatures (research shows common morals across the globe, whether religious or atheist) the ability to deviate from norms won’t be easily rectified. In the ‘Christian West’, we have reached Emanuel Todd’s ‘zero religious’ state - where vice now trumps virtue. Look at the drop in church numbers, the break down of societies (single mothers, abused children, serial marriages, compound families) abuse of international law by the West (support for wars of aggression and genocide) and the exposure of the Epstein classes degeneracy (extending to the President of the USA). Calling on Stoics, psychologists, philosophers and the law is unlikely to work expeditiously. I note, the lack of a call to Faith. The slide has been Gramsci’s long and slow march.
Internally, we’ve created the conditions for abuses to flourish. Who has seen the ostracism of the ‘do gooder’ who points out to a CO that his direction would breach multiple direction? Who has seen the downgraded report for supporting a soldier against the direction of a superior? The ADF has a culture of punishing those who follow policy and care for their troops against the wishes of a superior, as savagely as we punish ‘real wrong doers’. Even worse is the escape of those who should be punished through command inaction. Few look to Christ’s second commandment - ‘to do unto others as we would have them do unto yourself’. None of the above happens if we follow that commandment. And if you add a love of God, you fortify yourself to act correctly. Those two commandments help against the ‘bad wolf’ who advocates vice, while reinforcing the ‘white wolf’ who advocates virtue in your head.
If we persist with the silence about our soul and failure to help our troops to achieve an afterlife through faith and good works we will find our efforts to solve a moral problem were for nought.
From here, we may as well use the help of philosophers psychologists, lawyers, but we must bring to the party our chaplains. They are the ones who can penetrate the heart of our troops, while the former deal with the head.