What would it take?

[Tonchi]

No, that's not what I think. I'm talking about the worst possible case scenario, which if it is found anywhere nowdays it will be in Iraq. As for knowing where to get the right story on war or fighting, been there, done that. I lived in Albuquerque during most of Vietnam, where they had 3 air bases and the AEC at that time. I got more than enough feedback from the guys coming and going, both officers and enlisted men, about what they really did and how they felt about it. Also, I was born at Ft. Bragg, NC, to an Army family and all my male relatives have served in some branch of the service during WWII or Korea. In those days, the people who REALLY did any fighting did not want to talk about it, the more they saw the less they said. A pilot who flew many Napalm runs told me, "As far as I am concerned, I never killed anybody. I never saw anything that happened on the ground, I just sometimes flew back through the cloud because that was fun." Another friend who fought in Korea said basically the same thing, "I shot my rifle a lot, but as far as I know I never hit anybody." Obviously these kids had developed their own ways of coping with the situation.

This leads me to wonder if it is only in the last 40 year that our generals have decided we need to be systematically, professionally indoctrinated to kill, without rationalizing or considering if it wasn't justified, instead of simply being trained in the technical means to do said killing? Do you think that today's generation of kids who have been forced into heavy combat when they thought they just signed up to get the college benefits are going to kill with MORE, or LESS thought outside of hearing the command to shoot? Will the military be MORE, or LESS successful in wiping out the individual's ability to understand his actions in a personal way? I am betting they will be LESS successful nowdays in getting kids to kill somebody who is NOT of a different color, religion, culture or size in a foreign country. I think that this generation is so egocentric, self absorbed, and materialistic, so unused to serious application of their attention to anything prior to enlisting, that they will not be so easily shaped. I also believe that the rate of mental breakdowns after this generation returns home will be unprecidented, even worse than Nam, because they will not be able to cope when it sinks in what they have seen and done after being so insulated all their lives before they went over there. So Radar could even be right, but for different reasons than because this crop of young warriors is more ethical. But after all, it only takes one person to shoot you dead, and you might just be facing the one in 10,000 who actually WILL do it without a second thought.