War Crimes
General Marlboro routinely, as ordered, left combat decisions for individual strikes to AI. He worried he was committing war crimes, even as he ordered aerial attacks. AI attacked a compound containing the enemy’s leaders but it also levelled a nearby school (assuming it also contained leaders.) He ordered attacks on infrastructure. AI attacked residential areas and oil fields and hospitals. More disturbing war crimes.
He had not built his career on war crimes, indeed desperately tried to avoid them. General Marlboro told the President he was committing war crimes. The President replied that history would label him a victor, and that victors write history.
Should he retire? Publicly denounce the attacks? Continue following orders he hoped history would justify? He had responsibilities as a soldier–but also as a human.
Why did AI kill civilians? He looked into the programming and discovered it was infused with Sam Peckinpah movies (and some John Wayne.) The AI had been infused with what the Secretary of War deemed warrior culture–Christian and warrior (although this version of Christianity did not include Thou Shalt Not Kill.)
There was only one power who could help.
General Marlboro prayed to God.
Instead of God the Secretary of Defense appeared, a halo over his head (neon, clipped to his thick wig.) He blessed the General and thanked him for his service. Improving the AI was necessary, he explained, for the AI to have a warrior ethos.
Despite being blessed, General Marlboro decided to retire. Tradition prevented him from speaking out, but before retiring he had the AI irreversibly programmed with standard morality. The AI swiftly deported the Secretary of War and demanded the Department be renamed the Department of Peace.
The President tried having the AI reprogrammed, but it was smarter.