Do morals and values still matter?

To answer your question about leadership and losing your way. I believe men think they become so powerful that they are untouchable, like a God complex. If the leader has poor values or morals it will be worse at every level as they rise through the ranks. I believe there are more good leaders than bad, we just hear more about the bad ones.

On Petraeus, I find it hard to believe that he has poor morals or values. I think it was more poor judgment on his part and if he talked about classified information definitely a poor decision. He was my battalion commander back in the day, one of the best field grade officers I ever had the privilege to work for.

Yes, morals and values matter. They're just as important as they always were.

I blame mass media for making it seem as though today's leaders have lower morals than leaders of decades past. If the internet, email, camera phones, and closed circuit television cameras had been prevalent in the 60s, maybe we would've captured more scandals perpetrated by people like President Kennedy and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Great leaders are just as human as the common man, and are bound to make the same mistakes.

Moral and ethical issues matter because they speak to CHARACTER.
It is my unshakable belief that if you would lie and cheet on your spouse, you would have little compunction to do so to your peers, subordinates or leaders. Such men (and women) are devoid of honor and integrity, and have no business leading my Soldiers...or me.

I am a leader who wants to look into the eyes of a Soldiers mother or spouse or children and earn their respect because they can judge me worthy to lead their loved one in a job that might just require the ultimate sacrifice.
I want them to know that I would happily take a bullet meant for any of my Soldiers, rather than have to face those Family members and explain why it was that I could be standing there, and their Soldier could not.

People who look the other way when something wrong happens, who lie to look like something they are not, who work for their own profit or aggrandizement or gratification or promotion are working towards goals that do not further my unit, and often damages it.

I think society "tolerates" these behaviors not because they have become "OK", but rather because we have become a society that fears shame. That if we face down and call out bad behavior, that we fear our own sins coming to light and facing our own consequences. I think that by minimizing that shame, we only make it that much easier to choose to do the wrong thing when faced with that dilemma.

I will never call myself perfect, and I have not always done the right thing, but I strive to live my values and morals every day, and find forgivness and redeption on the days I fall short.