The way the Military Justice system is designed, it can be as swift, decisive, and brutal (or not) as a commander wants it to be. Commanders who have UCMJ authority are supposed to balance and take a number of factors into consideration when determine the outcome of an issue. This includes, to the extent practicable, the nature of the offense(s), any mitigating or extenuating circumstances, the character and military service of the accused, the views of the victim as to disposition, any recommendations made by subordinate commanders, the interest of justice, military exigencies, and the effect of the decision on the accused and the command. This makes military justice fairly subjective, giving the applicable commanders a great deal of latitude on the final disposition of an offense.
As commanders and future commanders, you will be required to sit in judgement or recommend dispositions for your Soldiers who commit UCMJ offenses. The overarching premise for these actions is to maintain good order and discipline (GO&D) within your unit.
There is an unspoken aspect of the pursuit to GO&D that doesn’t often get discussed at the officer levels. This aspect is how a blind pursuit of GO&D could negatively affect your unit’s morale, which in turn negatively affects your unit’s GO&D.
Discussion:
1) Does what constitutes something that affects good order and discipline, change depending on your level; e.g. tactical/company level, vs. BN, BDE or higher?
2) Can there be circumstances when the pursuit of “good order and discipline,” actually harms the good order, discipline and morale of a unit? More specifically, is there be a point when “for good order and discipline” alone isn’t a valid reason to pursue UCMJ action?
3) Do you have an example of when the “pursuit of good order and discipline” have been detrimental to an organization, that others can use so not to fall into the same problem?
4) (UPDATED) Do you have examples of alternatives to administrative/UCMJ actions that could, would or should have been used, and its affect on GO&D? (updated thanks to @cale ‘s comment)