The first casualty of war is the truth. This truism — understandably repeated at the outset of each new U.S. war — is proving itself once again. With all evidence pointing toward U.S. responsibility for the February 28 bombing of Shajarah Tayyebeh elementary school, President Trump claimed that the attack “was done by Iran.” In spreading this blatant misinformation, Trump was not in fact…
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All wars are built on one fundamental lie: that one set of human beings is worth killing enough to mobilize another set of human beings to do it.
The whole point of military training is to remove critical thinking and common sense enough in military personnel to believe the lie and lay down their lives for the liars.
The whole point of military training is to remove critical thinking and common sense enough in military personnel to believe the lie and lay down their lives for the liars.
There are a lot of valid criticisms of military training, military policy, military practice, etc. The above is not one of them. It is at best a specious argument that relies on the reader’s ignorance of how a military functions, and intentionally oversimplifies reality in order to score feelings-based ideological points.
There are many points (or objectives) of military training, some more obvious and some more abstract. Removing critical thinking is not one of those objectives, not for any serious military. Believing that this is true about military personnel (whether trainers or trainees) is a path to ignorance.
I was in the military. The training trains you for many things, but it trains you mostly to put your humanity aside and obey orders. In other words, brainwashing.
Only brainwashed people kill other human beings - either brainwashed by TV, the government or their CO. People who aren’t brainwashed into hating other humans or put “service” above their own morality see the horror of killing.
