The opportunity I was given, to take the floor within this symposium is an honor for me, for the Romanian Air Force, an occasion to make public some of my own opinions.
Firstly, I shall emphasize the importance of the topic talked as most welcome for every army in the world. Secondly, I express my regret because I'm taking part in an International military Ethic Symposium so late, butnot too late. I am convinced that if precious ideas learn t now from this seminar had been implemented a few years ago in Romania, many present educational problems would have found better solutions. Thirdly, it is a matter of conscience. I am not a too-happy man, but I am not unhappy, either. I am one of those trying to do today something better than I did yesterday, and feeling that a godless man is no man at all.
Military leadership involves the basic functions of leadership: precaution, decision, organization, coordination and control, in the military branch in peace and wartime as well. Within the Romanian present situation, the military leadership consists of: the country's Supreme Defense Council, Ministry of Defense, general staffs of the various armed forces, commandments of bigger or small units. The system functions according to the Constitution, to the laws passed by the Parliament, to the military rules and to the various internal norms. The ethic principles are all toopresent in the interhuman relations. If the principles of ethics are present in all organizing structures, in all hierarchical levels, during all the phases of the leading and implementing processes, then their universal character becomes obvious.
Basically, a performant military leadership achieves the betterment of the entire structure of military objectives-resources-results. Achieving certain objectives means human, financial, technical, etc. resources in a definite time frame so that to either reach minimum results or maximum positive effects, or to diminish the negative effects. But, no mission can be successful unless there is high moral of the own troops; to this contributes the ethics of the leading officers.
We can give many examples. The conclusion is only one: without professional ethic, without morality, professional performance is just impossible. Moreover, Goethe would say: "I'm losing strength when morals depart from me."
Actually, a performant military leadership achieves the harmony of the system lead in the case of the general leadership - the functional harmony of the military unit more concretely, no matter its profile. Let's also say that harmony is of natural inspiration; we can find it in the little universe as well as the bigger one, in the structure of the atom and of the galaxy, in the structure of the human being, in the animal world, in the living world. That is why we can say that the harmony of the composing elements of a society is necessary and that it needs to be achieved through volitive, reasonable, effective actions, in their turn based on ethic, on the legitimacy of the ethic principles.
The need of ethic in the society, implicit in the military leadership is going to be argumented starting from certain premises. All communities, in all times, including in the societies with polytheistic beliefs, are based on ethic principles and norms.
Certainly, prosperity and welfare of western nations has been achieved also as a result of implementing ethical norms of a great value.
On the other hand, Romania is undergoing so many breakings of the ethic, that in the press there are daily examples of serious antisocial facts. The military, as part and parcel of the society, is no exception to such things, obviously at a lesser extent. The reasons are both serious and clear. I intend to bring to your attention two major causes, specific to this period.
First: large masses of people banishing their belief in God -- the result of 50 years of communism.
Second: unbalanced national education system integrated and effective, based on high standards of performance in which family and school, military and religion together as sides of the same pyramid, working harmoniously, together, has to support the rock on the angle top -- people's happiness.
How can a military leader be ethical, moral? Easy to say, difficult to putinto practice. There is no formula, but we know that justice has to be made, that he should not be by-partisan. Only thus a leader will follow the way of good.
How can a military leader carry out something beautiful? Again, there is no universal solution. Nevertheless, we know that the great achievements of the human mind within the arts or sciences, as well as the man himself -- creation of the Divinity -- are perfectly harmonized elements. Their structure is obviously given by equilibrium and proportions.
On the other side, no matter how synthetical we are, let us not forget about honesty and fairness, loyalty and sincerity, spirit of justice, honor, virtue and mastery, without which ethics would be only sand castles, meant to destruction following to life's challenges.
Rabindranah Tagore -- laureat of the Nobel Prize for literature -- used to say that: "God may become sick of the great empires, but never of the small flowers."
Empires come and go, governments and leaders do the same, but the principles of ethic, the genuine flowers gardens in the people's souls, are everlasting.
If God loves flowers, why shouldn't we love them, we those created in His image??
We can do many things in our lifetime: earn fortunes, devote ourselves to brilliant careers, go beyond the limit of human knowledge, create a masterpiece, conquer glory, but we cannot produce TIME -- not one hour, one day, not even one moment! However, we can wisely use the time, price it, and be at the height of the times we live: the threshold of two millenniums!
Thank you for having given me some of your lifetime, here in Trondheim. May God give you all the necessary wisdom to use in noble purposes the forces you have -- army, air forces, navy -- in the one side, and spiritual forces on the other!
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