Army Professionalism, the Military Ethic, and Officership in the 21st Century
Major John A Nagl, COL Tony Pfaff, Dr Don M Snider
Monograph by the US Army War College, Strategic Studies Institute
"On January 25, 1999, a tall, ramrod-straight young combat-arms officer serving in Bosnia with the 1st Armored Division told the about-to-graduate cadets at West Point, “I tell my men every day there is nothing there worth one of them dying for.” It was a startling admission to the cadets who were in the midst of a series of classes on the professional military ethic; the lieutenant’s admission was utterly contradictory to what they had been studying."