United States Military – Conditioning Soldiers To Carry Orders

It may seem entirely natural to kill, but long-time evidence implies otherwise. While aggression is usual to the human species, so are altruistic impulses born of self-awareness and identification with The Other. This is why armies from ancient Roman legionnaires to modern-day infantrymen must steadily drill their recruits and continue to condition even lots of their combat vets in murderous behaviors.

For instance, as far back as Roman times it was noted that men had a natural aversion to stabbing, preferring to cut with their swords instead. Stabbing, intentionally and forcibly thrusting a blade into an opponent, was usually avoided by most amateurs to war because, we may surmise, folks simply have an almost instinctual wish not to inflict fatalities at least not at such close ranges.

After World War II, to cite another instance, studies conducted by the United States military found that less than 50% of all infantrymen actually fired their weapons, even when fired upon themselves. This is why the primary mission of basic training in the military any military, since time immemorial has been conditioning the psychology of recruits to kill on command.

Indeed, such conditioning masks the killing act, the killing behavior, not as killing but as the obeying of a command; psychologically, one no longer kills per se but only replies to orders by pulling a trigger or pushing a button.

And the more of an interface there is between attacker and victim the less complicated it is to kill. This makes sense, of course it’s much more hard to kill someone face to face than to kill him remotely via a videolink. It is also much more dire for the killer. And so it is that armies concentrate their efforts on securing obedience, for military operations involve teamwork and it is the one feeble link which will break the chain.