Military Review English Edition November-December 2014 | Page 92

within its organizations and units in somewhat the
same way as contagions are spread among susceptible
populations.20 Unlike disease epidemiologists, however,
military justice practitioners and unit commanders
responsible for enforcing standards of conduct and the
military criminal law tend to be reactive and individual-centric in practice.21 While military commanders
are afforded great power and discretion, they cannot
predict undesirable or illegal behaviors in order to circumvent them, including whether a particular soldier
will commit a crime. Thus, commanders’ responses
to misconduct are just that: responses after the fact.
Moreover, it is largely axiomatic that a service member
is legally accountable only for his or her own criminal
acts (exceptions, of course, for conspiracies, accessories,
and aiding and abetting), an