[cliffy]

This speech by Colonel Jessep is meant to be revealing of his true thoughts and character. Jessep rationalizes the evil and immoral acts he commits or orders because he's "protecting" the rest of society. He lied to cover up his own malfeasance. A soldier died under his command, murdered, as a direct consequence of illegal orders he gave.

How do you completely twist the plot of this movie to arrive at the conclusion that Colonel Jessep's worldview is one to be admired instead of reviled?

[nonrepeating]

For a mainstream Hollywood film, "A Few Good Men" is quite nuanced. Colonel Jessup's actions are plainly illegal, and in the end he is arrested for them, but his point still has merit: society must be protected, and perhaps necessarily, it is protected by people who must do things that society would disapprove of. The actual courtroom proceedings of the movie are less interesting than the philosophical debate, and ultimately one can admire both viewpoints.

[NickC25]

Exactly.

The whole quote can be boiled down to "the ends justify whatever means I want them to".

Yet the key takeaway relative to today's world is this - society needs to know what measures are being taken on their dime to ensure their "freedom" (loaded term), as they, as taxpayers, are indeed on the hook for reparations of any and all kinds. The US military destabilized Iraq and Afghanistan and spent untold billions if not trillions trying to rebuild it - yet I have a strong feeling that the Colonels, Generals, etc... didn't liquidate their stock portfolios to fund such an operation - they took that money from taxpayers.

The Colonel doesn't personally pay for the damages to society he caused - that's the taxpayer's job, and they should be, in his mind, grateful for that. But what he misses is that society at large has no time for people who think like that - that's why he's the bad guy. He doesn't care about the risks, and claims we should happily accept whatever comes next because in his mind, he's helping defend the country.