Obedience is traditionally the supreme virtue of the military and, for many people, a soldier is an
unthinking automaton that has been conditioned to respond to commands and operate in strictly hierarchical
environments. But as soldiers progress in rank, they are required to distinguish between legitimate and illegitimate commands as well as to reason concerning their commands and other military and non-military
engagements. This paper is an overview of the practical steps adopted to foster independent thinking
among student officers at the Botswana Defence Command and Staff College. It shows how the tools of
critical thinking can be used to help student officers overcome the lessons of unquestioning obedience
ingrained in them at cadet training and gain an awareness of themselves as autonomous individuals with
responsibilities to and beyond the military hierarchy. It also shows how critical thinking can assist in the
evaluation of military objectives and in the decisions that follow such evaluations.