I've never been a soldier. I can't imagine for a minute what a soldier's mindset must be like (1) when everything is generally okay, and (2) when everything is totally fucked up and your world is an inferno of violence and noise and emotion.Apparently arrogance is a part of a soldier's mindset. I suppose it has to be. The arrogance probably started off as "confidence", but after that soldier's confidence is proven right again and again, arrogance has to come peeking through sooner or later.
But rage: That's the real kicker. When a soldier's confidence is literally shot to hell, rage must get together with arrogance and cause soldiers to go crazy and do things like this. That's my only guess. What other mindset is available for consideration that would allow a soldier to bring a rifle to bear point blank on a little girl, squeeze the trigger, and send her off to oblivion? I mean, that's inhuman.
Like I said, I have never been so pumped up with a combination of training, testosterone, temper, and torment, so I have no idea what a man is capable of given the right circumstances.
But still... there is rage-filled murder, and then there is staring an innocent child in the eye and taking her life. Whatever emotional filter was clouding that soldier's eye at that moment, he had to have seen the little girl he killed. What he felt after such a heinous act, I myself do not care to ponder.
3 comments:
So you were there ? Why don't you save your comments until the investigation is complete ? The unfortunate outcome will either be a) They did kill civilians unjustifiably and be punished.
b) They acted according to the rules of engagement and will be punished anyway to appease the masses.
Either way our fellow Americans are fucked.
BTW - I was inside the FLB when you took that pic os WS...
Ah yes... the old "you aren't allowed to speak your opinion because..." comment.
I would think it is exceptionally hard to find an excuse (in or out of the Rules of Engagement) which can explain away a toddler with a close-range bullet hole, but if they do manage to explain it away, I personally would never support throwing a soldier to the wolves just to make people feel better.
Like I said... the entire reason for this article... I could never understand what was going through those soldeirs' minds when they went into that house, but it certainly had to be something that had to do with training, arrogance, and rage.
he didn't say you weren't allowed to speak your opinion, but as you said, you have no idea - what/how soldiers think at times like that.
it's not the training - discipline is extremely important and is constantly stressed at all times, it's not arrogance - I'm not really sure how you came up with this but even if it were true it's not why. rage may be part of it, but that's not the whole thing, nor is it really as motivating as you might think.
I think a bit of it is not caring and hating. sometimes someone just has had enough, and just doesn't care about some certain things any more - in the vietnam war, some soldiers killed eachother for no real reason that would normally motivate them.
people just can't psychologically take things past a certain point and remain/react as the same person they normally are, and after a while in combat (the british used to say 120 days, and the US I believe now believes 80 days on average) soldiers become psychologically ineffective/messed up beyond good rational thought (at least to the point of being beyond being used as good soldiers).
some of it is from guilt of killing people - it's not natural. looking back at many wars a large number of people didn't fire their weapons at the enemy because they didn't want to kill them - coming from 15% in the first world war to 50-55% in the Korean War to 90% in vietnam (figures for the US army). through a lot of things (and due to many changes in society), military forces have been able to train soldiers more easily come to the decision to kill.
the whole business of conflict comes rather naturally, but killing does not. a lot of people get messed up when they come into situations where they kill, or while they bring themselves to the decision to kill.
"What other mindset is available for consideration that would allow a soldier to bring a rifle to bear point blank on a little girl, squeeze the trigger, and send her off to oblivion? I mean, that's inhuman."
uncaring thoughtlessness (or caring or thinking about something else too much) - don't care about something and just do it, care enough about something else to not care about that thing, or think about something else to the point of not realizing that that is irrational.
it seemse to me that it is very human - we're very messed up as a whole. if you don't know/believe this, you are possibly sheltered, or just don't know/haven't met the right (or wrong) people. if you truly think this is inhuman, it is a good thing. I wish I didn't think it was (if disgusting) something that is to be expected of humans. I hate that it is something coming from the Marine Corps - we hold ourselves and are held by others to a higher standard than many, and I like it that way. but we're still full of a normal variety of people - there are a lot of murderers all over the place, and rapists and all sorts of other people like that outside of organizations that exist to kill and destroy (in order to protect and defend). even someone who would not normally be inclined to take someone's life in the wrong situation could easily do something as simple as pull a trigger in the moment.
after or before something, there would be more time to think about it, but in the moment, it is easy to avoid good rational thought and just act and react in a way that seems perfectly fine/that doesn't seem wrong, or to not care about it.
I hope you or someone else can get something out of this - I'm not sure if what I've typed communicated exactly what I want, and I'm not sure exactly what I want to communicate. I in no way want to defend the soldiers who did that. as I am also a marine and may face some situations where I may be faced with drastic decisions, I want to know and understand the thoughts and emotions as much as I can so I will be able to react/act how I should. I'm just trying to figure life out a bit more, and I hope some of what I've mentioned might at least be interesting to you in some way.
thank you for reminding me that people have different views on things - I know some people who understand how those people thought (they do condemn their actions, but they actually understand how they felt and reacted), and it's nice to know people who have no idea what it's like. i don't mean to call you naive or anything, i'm just glad you don't have experience in this sort of thing - I wish no one did.
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