Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Politics : View from the Center and Left -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: freelyhovering who wrote (136126)	4/8/2010 1:12:46 AM
From: Sam	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 541958

If you want informed comment, ask Ed. He's the best writer I know on SI when it comes to wartime situations.

To: freelyhovering who wrote (136126)	4/8/2010 2:17:25 PM
From: cnyndwllr	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 541958

Hi Freely. Since Sam was so generous in bringing up my name I thought I might comment. First, I haven't watched the video and probably won't. I think the article you posted on it, however, was pretty much on point. Whenever you put young men in front of guns and give them guns of their own you can expect that: they're going to be scared, they're going to react by getting angry, they're going to develop a view of their enemies as merciless, ruthless, murdering psychopaths, they're going to get very macho and mentally make themselves "big" enough to overcome their lethal enemies, their survival instincts are going to go into overdrive and they're going to respond to ANY perceived threat with almost unthinking and immediate deadly force, and they're going to forgive themselves and their fellow soldiers for any mistakes made in those circumstances, When that happens there is also a certain type of soldier who will take that as a license to go further and kill indiscriminately. Either because he's sadistic, more scared than anyone else, or maybe because he's hatefully nuts, that kind of guy has a very small "off" button and he'll deliberately kill anything foreign that moves whenever he can find an excuse. Door gunners on helicopters are in especially tough spots. Their job is to shoot enemies and they have hunting instincts, they're at risk highlighted in the sky with their only defense a hail of bullets or rockets at an assailant and they control a lot of firepower. I can guarantee you that when our guys on the ground hear one of our attack choppers overhead they melt into invisibility if they can because they understand how lethal those choppers are and how trigger happy their gunners can be. There are very few guys who can control their fears, marshall their instincts and react with speed and precision in such situations, and even those special guys can make mistakes. These things are so inherent in war that, in my view, you should not place the primary blame on the soldier for instances like this but rather the war. That's why we must never go to war unless the cause justifies such carnage, the war is winnable and there is no other way. And that's why these war wimps that take us into bad wars can never wash their hands of incidents like this. As a side note I'd like to point out that this type of event creates victims on both ends of the shootings. I say that because although these soldiers are going to forgive themselves and their fellow soldiers for any mistakes made in those circumstances, for many of them that forgiveness will not survive after they leave the combat zones and review the things they did in the softer, safer environments of home. Ed