CNN.....Fit To Kill...How soldiers are trained to kill and how they cope

[glarius]

CNN just had this on, hosted by Aaron Brown. It dealt with how soldiers learn to accept the killing they are forced to do as soldiers. It was pretty sad at times. Showed how some never get over the trauma....Brown has finally shown his TRUE feelings about this war in Iraq...His final smug statement at the end of the show was "most of the men returning from Iraq will be proud of what they accomplished!"....
P.S. I point this out because I have seen postings on here from time to time where people were questioning Brown's political leanings.

[ThomWV]

1. Few Trigger Fingers

Did you know that one of the biggest training problems the military faces is actually getting soldiers to fire their weapons at all? Most don't you know, even in the heat of battle it has been shown that most never pull the trigger.

[glarius]

2. It is really so terribly, terribly sad and UNNECESSARY

Every time I see something like this and think of all those young people being used in this way by that strutting little bastard in the White House I want to cry and yell at the same time...You can see what lies ahead!....Thousands of young veterans from this war, unable to reintegrate into society and living sad lives....It is so criminal!

[cally]

3. One study, highly controversial

said that in WWII only 25 percent of the troops would shoot to kill. So the Army changed their entire training regimin to teach troops to kill. Showed lots of interviews with men tortured by their actions in various wars.

This has always been a major concern for me. How do men, mostly, go off to war and then come home and lead normal lives. There has to be better ways to help them understand their training and why it's wrong in civilian life.

[glarius]

4. Members of my own family who served in WW2....a necessary war....

never were the same after they came home....One of my uncles, who was a very sensitive and quiet person before enlisting, drank himself to death after returning to Canada...

[soothsayer]

5. that's why rummy (wasn't it he?) who was excited about a new pill

or one in development that would give soldiers short-term amnesia after killing, so they wouldn't have to remember what they did?

Of course, the implications of that are much scarier than any argument that it would be compassionate to our fighters.

Better to keep them out of unnecessary wars, methinks.

[Nlighten1]

6. Training to kill...

can't be as bad as actually killing someone. I was in the Army for 5 years and did a lot of training. I was lucking that I never got to use that training.
The training you do in the field is mostly lopsided and boring. You are either at a rifle range (not too dangerous as the targets don't shoot back) , squad qualifications (sort of dangerous because you are using real ammo and going out on mock patrol and attacking), or you are using blanks and lasers to "zap" the OPFOR team.

There are no civilians in the way.

[raysr]

7. Training to kill 1968

"What's the spirit of the bayonet?" "TO KILL!!!!" Basic training, US Army