A Scrutiny of the Ethical Dilemmas in ‘A Few Good Men’

A young Navy Lawyer named Lt. Daniel Kaffee is in charge of the cases of two Marines, namely: PFC Louden Downey and LCpl Harold Dawson, who have been court-martialed because of allegedly murdering a fellow marine that goes by the name of PFC William T. Santiago (Reiner et. al., 1992).PFC William T. Santiago criticizes the status of Guantanamo Naval Base Bay in terms of its health condition (Reiner et. al., 1992). The top officials ignore his appeals which led him to finally decide on requesting that he be transferred to another Naval Base (Reiner et. al., 1992). As they continue to pay no attention to his complaints, he threatened that he would expose a case of an â€Å"illegal fence-line shooting† if they would not transfer him to another Naval Base (Reiner et. al., 1992).He then sends a letter to Col. Nathan Jessep, the CO of the Marines at the aforementioned base (Reiner et. al., 1992). Col. Nathan Jessep reads it as a way of informing Lt. Col. Matthew Markinson, who is Col . Nathan Jessep’s executive officer and 1st Lt. Jonathan Kendrick, who is the platoon commander of PFC William T. Santiago (Reiner et. al., 1992).Both Col. Nathan Jessep’s subordinates get mad as they were being notified about it but they disagree with the decision of transferring PFC William T. Santiago to another Naval Base (Reiner et. al., 1992). Lt. Col. Matthew Markinson wants to transfer PFC William T. Santiago, however, Col. Nathan Jessep do not agree with it stating that PFC William T. Santiago will be trained there instead (Reiner et. al., 1992).Lt. Daniel Kaffee establishes that PFC Louden Downey and LCpl Harold Dawson were just carrying out the instructions/orders given by Col. Nathan Jessep, as well as, 1st Lt. Jonathan Kendrick (Reiner et. al., 1992). PFC Louden Downey and LCpl Harold Dawson reiterate that they were given instructions to â€Å"give the victim a Code Red† (Reiner et. al., 1992). A â€Å"Code Red† is a â€Å"colloquial termino logy† that pertains to â€Å"extrajudicial punishment† (Reiner et. al., 1992).When Lt. Daniel Kaffee began to infer that he was only specifically picked to be the lead counsel of PFC Louden Downey and LCpl Harold Dawson, he knew immediately the reasons why (Reiner et. al., 1992). It was because he used to engage himself in â€Å"quickly settling cases by plea bargains† (Reiner et. al., 1992).The ones who picked him had two motives for choosing him: number one is to hamper the case of PFC Louden Downey and LCpl Harold Dawson from being tried and number two is to humiliate the Marine Corps which will eventually tarnish Col. Nathan Jessep’s promotion (Reiner et. al., 1992).Fortunately, as the case progresses, Lt. Daniel Kaffee is more motivated to work on the case (Reiner et. al., 1992). He even learned to cooperate and respect LCDR JoAnn Galloway, his partner in defending the case of PFC Louden Downey and LCpl Harold Dawson (Reiner et. al., 1992).In the end, Lt. Daniel Kaffee is successful in defending the case by providing evidence that indeed Col. Nathan Jessep â€Å"ordered a Code Red† to get back at PFC William T. Santiago who has written a letter with regards to a case of an â€Å"illegal fence-line shooting† (Reiner et. al., 1992).As Col. Nathan Jessep confesses that he ordered so, he was arrested and detained while PFC Louden Downey and LCpl Harold Dawson were not charged by the court as â€Å"guilty of murder and conspiracy to commit murder† however, was charged for â€Å"conduct unbecoming of a United States Marine† (Reiner et. al., 1992). PFC Louden Downey and LCpl Harold Dawson were â€Å"dishonorably discharged† because of that (Reiner et. al., 1992).