Trained KIllers

Recently Israeli soldiers have been accused of killing of Palestinian civilians in Gaza. American troops are accused of murdering unarmed civilians in Iraq and Afghanistan. Palestinian soldiers often use horrid stereotypes of Jews. The first rule of training a soldier is to dehumanize the potential enemy. If the person you are fighting is not seen as a human being, it is much easier to kill or maim that person whether another soldier or a civilian. Rag Heads, Gooks, Japs, Krauts are common vulgar words in our racist vocabulary. In military parlance those words are equal to the enemy. Probably all armies throughout history have used dehumanizing words to refer to a person who might kill or wound them.

Millions of young men and women in the United States and in countries all over the world are carefully trained to see enemies as non-humans. It is therefore not surprising that military personnel have wanton disregard for human life when they are scared and confronted with the people they have been trained to see as enemies and less than human.