schiz0phren1c said:
Sorry to disagree with you both guys,
but war is ultimately psychotic,and anyone who goes through basic training,or is brainwashed into terrorism IS by definition Psychotic,Sociopathic and as much a threat to CIVILIAN society as a murderer who "pays his debt" to society and is released.
What exactly do you you think "Basic Training" is? its teaching normal people to breach the ultimate taboo,to deliberately,purposefully take a Human Life.
I agree with this but I'll expand on it a little.
The army has an idea of what sort of person joins the army. They know how to take a group of such people and turn them into soldiers, and they try to get those people into the army. Things get a little weird when they find themselves needing a few technicians and linguists and the like and having to recruit them from outside the "potential soldier" blob in the Venn diagram of humanity, but generally it works.
The first things you do in the army are put your civilian clothes away because you won't be wearing them for at least six weeks, get exactly the same haircut as everyone else and put on exactly the same uniform as everyone else ... and lose your first name. There are no Annes or Brians or Charlottes or Davids in the army. There are Privates, Drivers, Riflemen, Lancers, Signallers, Sappers and a few other equivalent ranks. They have surnames. It goes: "Sir, I am 25123456 Private Jones, Sir!" There's no "Fred" in there. If they have three Sig Smiths in the troop, they are Sig Smith 4650, Sig Smith 4359 and Sig Smith 4441.
Then you spend twelve weeks being bullied, abused, deprived of sleep, fed SHIT and subjected to collective punishment because it makes people bond into little teams that all succeed or all suffer based on whether or not they all do all their jobs right ... and also made fit and taught some basic military skills.
I'm not sure quite how the US army organises it, but the British Army has, from memory:
One soldier
Two soldiers are a pair.
Four soldiers are a fire team, with a Lance Corporal or Corporal in charge (NCO i/c).
Two fire teams are a section, with the Cpl in charge and the L/Cpl second in command (2ic).
Three sections make a troop or platoon, with a Captain (or Lieutenant, on occupying a place in lieu of a Captain) as officer commanding (OC) and a Sergeant to run things.
Three troops make a squadron. Three platoons make a company. Either way there's a Major as OC, with a Squadron Sergeant Major or Company Sergeant Major to run things.
Three sqns or coys make a battalion, with a Lieutenant Colonel as commanding officer (CO), a Regimental Sergeant Major running things and generally speaking a Lt or Capt as adjutant to handle the boring paperwork.
Above that, the officers stop being part of a regiment or corps and start being politicians. YOU HEARD. Yes, YOU.
Lance Corporals and Corporals may get informal and drop the ranks among themselves and even use first names, and officers and sergeants on the same level of organisation do it a fair bit, but down at the bottom you have a number, a rank and a surname, and shit rolls downhill.
What's the point of that? To dehumanise you. The army has little use for human beings. They have a massive need for humans and particularly empaths, but they don't want 'em. They want soldiers who obey orders in ways their cadre can predict and plan, and they want them full of themselves and willing to kill. Basic Training is meant to break you down and build something else out of the pieces.
(I fail English? thats UNPOSSIBLE!) but thats one thing we both agree on.
