War - What They Don't
Show Or Tell In
Commercials
By Judith Moriarty
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
2-3-3
- "Naturally, the common man (that's us) people don't
want war....but after all it is the leaders of a country who determine
the policy, and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along,
whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament,
or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can ALWAYS be
brought to the the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to
do is to tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists
for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. IT WORKS THE
SAME IN EVERY COUNTRY." --Hermann Goering (Nazi Germany)
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- Today, through Leave No Child Behind legislation,
schools must hand over the names of children to be recruited for war or
suffer the threat of no money!! Of course it's our money to begin with,
but what if every school in the country just kept their state monies and
refused to beg for a pittance back? Slick recruiting busses pull up to
high schools and colleges promising a life of adventure, travel to
exotic ports, and that all important carrot the education your parents
couldn't afford to give you. Video games put out by the Armed Services
having clean arcade kill games are no different than those games bought
for children year in and year out at Christmas. Kill from a distance.
Now global positioning (phew space exploration has paid off) satellites
can take care to guide super-improved smart bombs right to their
intended targets of water companies, infra-structure, and electrical
grids. But what isn't being told? What of those impressionable young
men, hardly having their second shave, left damaged by being programmed
to kill? Does this mechanism automatically shut down when one gets their
discharge papers? What of the rampages we see killers on? Timothy
McVeigh was a soldier, as was one of the recent snipers. The murders of
wives recently at an army base, were by soldiers just returned from war.
What of the numerous other instances of shootings and violence and
suicides across the country by veterans? William S. Frisbee Jr., gives a
look at the psychology and realities of war that one doesn't get in the
slick TV advertisements:
"Hollywood is great at making war seem
so simple and strait forward. It makes the watcher believe that people
kill each other because they are told, because it is kill or be killed,
the enemy is hated or whatever. Hollywood tries to make us believe that
all soldiers fire at each other, desperately attempting to hit and kill
each other. While there is some truth in the matter, it is mostly
wrong.
-
- When most people talk about killing, they are like
virgins talking about sex. You can talk about it all day, you can fully
understand the mechanics involved but when the time comes there is so
much more involved than the person thought! When bullets start flying
emotions start running high and that can have a powerful effect on how a
person sees things. Five hundred combatants can see five hundred
different things. In war every fighter see's things
differently.
In World War Two, it is a fact that only 15-20
percent of the soldiers fired at the enemy. That is one in five soldiers
actually shooting at a Nazi when he sees one. While this rate may have
increased in desperate situations, in most combat situations soldiers
were reluctant to kill each other. The Civil War was not dramatically
different or any previous wars. In World War Two only one percent of the
pilots accounted for thirty to forty percent of enemy fighters shot down
in the air. Some pilots didn't shoot down a single enemy plane.
-
- In Korea, the rate of soldiers unwilling to fire on
the enemy decreased and fifty five percent of the soldiers fired at the
enemy. In Vietnam this rate increased to about ninety five percent but
this doesn't mean they were trying to hit the target. In fact it usually
took around fifty-two thousand bullets to score one kill in regular
infantry units! It may be interesting to note that when Special Forces
kills are recorded and monitored this often includes kills scored by
calling in artillery or close air support. In this way Special Forces
units could score very high kill ratios like fifty to a hundred for
every Special Forces soldier killed. This is not to say these elite
troops didn't score a large number of bullet type kills. It is
interesting to note that most kills in war are from artillery or other
mass destruction type weapons.
If one cuts through the hype, one
will find that man is often unwilling to kill his fellow man and the
fighter finds it very traumatic when he has to do so. On the battlefield
the stress of being killed and injured is not always the main fear. When
a soldier flees he becomes a back. Again, humans are like animals. If
you run from a dog it will chase you down and bite you, maybe kill you.
Humans are like that, to run from a human high on adrenaline is an open
invitation to be chased and killed. This is why the most dramatic
causalities occur during a retreat. Troops no longer look into the eyes
of a terrified foe like himself, he sees a back, prey that is fleeing
from him and is much more willing and able to shoot him in the back. A
fleeing soldier is no longer somebody, he is something, he is prey for
the soldier behind him. Killing a soldier that is submitting is a very
frequent occurrence because the killer may be high on adrenaline, is in
a highly emotional state and may not realize his foe is surrendering.
Then there are the psychopaths that are quite willing to shoot down
surrendering troops and these individuals are in every military.
-
- Most sane humans, if given the choice, will not kill
their fellow man and are extremely reluctant to do so, despite what
Hollywood would like you to believe. When they are forced to do so, many
can experience a great deal of psychological trauma. Superior training
currently used by military organizations helps make the decision for the
individual. This is a form of brainwashing. In World War Two people
learned to fire on a firing range at paper targets. When they go to the
battle field they may have been excellent shots but they realized they
were shooting at another person, someone named Hans or Fredrick, or
whatever. Today, more realistic targets are used in more realistic
environments. Killing a 'target' becomes more automatic, more
instinctive so when push comes to shove the trooper may be scared and
unthinking but his body knows what to do and does it, sometimes before
the soldier can rationalize what he is doing. This makes the act of
killing more traumatic for the killer and may be why a higher percentage
of Vietnam vets suffer after the war. They had training which made them
kill despite their desire not to.
Emotional and physical distance
can also allow a person to kill his foe. Emotional distance can be
classified as mechanical, social, cultural and emotional distance.
Physical distance has to do with the distance. It is much more difficult
to kill someone when you can feel his breath and see the fear in his
eyes as you ram home a knife. It is very traumatic at such close range.
At long range, like an artilleryman firing at the target that is over a
couple hills, he does not see the enemy and can more easily deny the
enemy's humanity. Emotional distance allows a person to kill at closer
ranges and allows him to justify it more easily. Cultural distance is
defined as seeing the enemy as an INFERIOR life form. The enemy is
dehumanized and considered inferior. Like the Nazi's classified Jews and
blacks (the mentally-retarded, handicapped, homosexuals, gypsies,
elderly--jm) as inferior and subhuman, putting them outside the human
species and thus little more than an animal to be killed. In the animal
kingdom, most animals do not kill others of their SPECIES with very,
very few exceptions. Humans are like animals in this regard, we don't
want to kill each other and sometimes we behave like animals, especially
in combat.
-
- Distance directly affects how easy it is to kill.
Bomber pilots don't have trouble laying waste to kilometers of land and
killing hundreds of thousands because they don't see or hear the dead or
dying. For infantry units, this takes on a different aspect, they see
the fear in the other person's eyes, the sweat on his brow, the pain in
his face, the blood spurting from the wound, the desperate cries for
mercy. The enemy becomes real and vivid, the enemy becomes someone with
hopes, dreams, fears, a mother, a father, maybe a wife, just like the
shooter. Killing that enemy soldier is like killing himself. That is why
infantry men are more traumatized by war than any other
field.
Moral distance is classifying the enemy as morally wrong.
US troops fighting the Nazi's or Japanese had moral distance to help
them kill. The Nazi's were butchers, cruel and vicious. The Nazi's were
guilty and had to be punished by those who were right and just. SOCIAL
distance is a form of classifying others as lesser beings. For instance,
in the medieval ages of Knights and men-at-arms, the Knights, the
nobility were the primary killers. A soldier could look across the line
at another soldier just like him, terrified unwilling to kill. A Knight
would look down at the serf/soldiers as lesser beings who simply could
not COMPARE to himself and their loss was not important because they
were not as GREAT as he was.
-
- Ships shoot at and destroy the enemy and although they
are killing other people, they don't see it that way. Naval crews are
more unlikely to suffer the psychological trauma of war for this reason.
Snipers see their target through a scope and this can make the enemy
less human to the shooter. In Desert Storm, the use of night sights made
the war seem more like a Nintendo game. Another factor that can have a
big effect on whether or not a person fires is the presence of
authority. If an officer is standing next to a person and orders that
person to fire, then that person is much more likely to do
so.
The psychological casualty rate of front line units gave the
POWERS THAT BE, the idea of doing the same thing to enemy populations.
In World War Two this became more evident as the nations bombed
innocent, helpless civilians. It was believed that bombing them would
cause a high number of psychiatric casualties for the enemy and destroy
their WILL to fight, but it didn't happen. In many cases it hardened
their resolve instead of creating hordes of mentally traumatized
people.
- Studies have shown that the more time in combat a
soldier spends the more likely they are to become a psychiatric
casualty. A psychiatric casualty is useless to a combat unit and
presents as much danger to his fellows as the enemy. It is generally
believed that sixty days of frontline combat will destroy a unit as an
effective fighting force because after sixty days of combat ninety eight
percent of the unit is likely to be a psychiatric casualty. This might
be another reason so many people suffered in Vietnam because there were
no safe areas.
-
- When a person becomes a psychiatric casualty this can
take different forms of various degrees. After several months of combat
nearly everyone will exhibit some symptoms of mental stress. In some
case rest and recuperation helps a great deal. The soldier may become
'tired' and unwilling to do anything. He doesn't want to associate with
friends or participate in any physical or mental activity or
responsibility. He may be sensitive to loud noises, crying spells or
fits of anxiety. In many ways all he wants to do is vegetate and is
subject to mood swings. Confusional States are when a psychiatric
casualty loses track of time, place and cannot deal with his
environment. Some symptoms include delirium, psychotic dissociation, and
manic-depressive mood swings. Another effect is the Ganzer syndrome. He
will make jokes, act silly or otherwise try to avoid the horror and fear
with humor. A soldier may use a body or body part and treat it as still
alive, like what the soldiers did to a dead body in Full Metal Jacket.
They propped him up, put a cigarette in his mouth and 'pretended' he was
alive. Some cases may be more extreme.
Conversion Hysteria can
happen during combat or years later. The person loses all touch with
reality and may wander around regardless of dangers like mines, enemy
snipers, etc. He may ball up into a fetal position and try to deny his
surroundings or shake violently. Large portions of a person's memory may
be blocked out to protect the conscious mind from the horror. A certain
portion of a person's body may not function, like the arm that pulls the
trigger!
-
- Anxiety States can affect a soldier's ability to
sleep. No matter how much sleep or rest he gets he is always tired. His
dreams may be plagued by nightmares and he may become obsessed with
death. Some of the symptoms of anxiety are shortness of breath,
weakness, pain, blurred vision, giddiness, temporary paralyzation and
fainting. An affect of Anxiety disorders is called Post Traumatic Stress
Disorder. Years after combat the soldier's blood pressure may rise
dramatically along with sweating, nervousness and multiple
problems.
Character Disorders are when a soldier becomes fixated
on certain actions or things. Paranoia may include irascibility,
depression and anxiety about his personal safety. Schizoids become
hypersensitive and prefer to be 'alone'. Epileptoid's become more prone
to violent and unpredictable rages. Some become obsessed with religion
and some become psychotic. In essence (in war) a person's very character
has changed." Recommended reading-"On Killing: The Psychological Cost of
Learning to Kill in War and Society", by Lieut. Colonel Dave Grossman.
"You know the real meaning of PEACE only if you have been through the
war." Kosovar
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- A young man is discharged after the trauma of war with
neither he or his family aware of the psychological and physical
consequences, sometimes years afterwards. Unable to hold down a job or
form any close relationships, he drifts like a ship in the night from
one port to another seeking relief, a release from the demons that hound
him. Many times he turns to drugs or drink; getting no help and no
answers from military officialdom that has written him off as the refuse
of war, no longer needed. Trained to kill, he is now told to get a job
and get back in the mainstream of a nine to five job. He can't talk
about or share the psychic shock he's suffered with anyone, even if he
could recall it all. Nobody prepared him at the recruiting station, or
on the slick, 'See The World-Get an Education Bus,' or the TV
commercials; for napalmed children, burning flesh, manical raping, his
buddies blown apart beside him, the thunder of in-coming, the screams
the thundering noise, the dripping Agent Orange causing rashes all over
him, the heat, the bugs, the canned rations and the stench...the stench.
Returning home he was ignored, spit on, left in the gutter. Fighting to
stop Communism? Democracy? Liberty? Drafted, he went thinking he was
saving his fellow countrymen from some future threat or enemy! What the
hell did he know at eighteen?? Haunted, gray, homeless he sat in a bar,
decades later and listened to the words of former Defense Secretary
Robert McNamara, (polished -rich- fatted) remarking that, "it was all a
mistake". 58,000 names on a Wall in Washington and millions dead through
bombings and genocide, his life a shambles.....all for a MISTAKE!
Another war...same old slogans, same old lies, from those who will never
know the first thing about War, in their opulent board rooms or fancy
war bunkers. But then they don't have to....they've got the common folk
who'll do their dirty work once again. Give them the same old threat of
attack and call everyone who objects, a threat to democracy and
unpatriotic. Works everytime! JM
"Violence is the first refuge of
the incompetent." --Issac
Asimov
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The Mulindwas
communication group
"With Yoweri Museveni, Uganda is in
anarchy"
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