JuntaJoe
Joined: 07 Nov 2004
Posts: 7391
Location: Texas
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| Posted: Fri Apr 15, 2005 8:31 pm Post subject: The Mind of a Reluctant Killer |
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What happens in the mind of a soldier?
Not the thoughts of a stone killer, but the average chump drafted and handed a rifle?
Ask an old grizzled veteran?
Ask a scared private just before the crap hits the fan?
That's what I would have suggested.
Ask some British female professor of history with a passing interest in psychology?
I would have laughed. Laughed hard too.
I don't anymore. I know an author who has never seen a shot fired in anger and has it down cold. She should be mandatory reading for any military officer above field grade rank. Her insight could save lives and get better use out of the manpower available.
She has reached down into the skulls all the way to the gibbering hindbrains of all those poor saps who ever slogged through frozen slush wondering when their bell would be rung.
Read her book and you will understand far more about combat and war than you ever thought possible. And I'm positive that any illusions or pre-concieved notions will be shattered completely.
Her name is Joanna Bourke. Her book is An Intimate History of Killing, subtitled Face to Face Killing in the 20th Century. Copyright 1999. ISBN: 0-465-00737-6 |
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