Years ago, I watched something, maybe it was on 60 Minutes? I can't remember. I was so disturbed by it, and I can still remember the content. It was showing the training (mostly screaming at and demeaning), interviewing young soldiers, and generals were talking about having to break the spirit of the soldier to mold them to follow orders. There were other people in the room, and I was the only one that was a bit horrified. Everyone else didn't see anything wrong with what they were seeing and tried to justify how "breaking the spirit" was necessary because it turned these young men into soldiers who did exactly as they were instructed. I saw it as young men that were verbally and emotionally abused by people without a conscience. That's probably the wrong way to think about it, but what I watched has stuck with me all these years.
That's spot on. I remember distinctly my drill Sgt saying, "We're going to completely break you down and apart. We're going to build you back up in our image,"
Really important reading. This should be the kind of veterans’ voice we see more of.
Years ago, I watched something, maybe it was on 60 Minutes? I can't remember. I was so disturbed by it, and I can still remember the content. It was showing the training (mostly screaming at and demeaning), interviewing young soldiers, and generals were talking about having to break the spirit of the soldier to mold them to follow orders. There were other people in the room, and I was the only one that was a bit horrified. Everyone else didn't see anything wrong with what they were seeing and tried to justify how "breaking the spirit" was necessary because it turned these young men into soldiers who did exactly as they were instructed. I saw it as young men that were verbally and emotionally abused by people without a conscience. That's probably the wrong way to think about it, but what I watched has stuck with me all these years.
That's spot on. I remember distinctly my drill Sgt saying, "We're going to completely break you down and apart. We're going to build you back up in our image,"
This is how some people treat children too, and think it’s great and proper. The levels of trauma I cannot even imagine.