March 29, 2015 Editor

Thank A Trained Killer Week, December 19 – 25, 2005

An excerpt:

The week before Christmas south of the border has been designated “Thank a Soldier Week.” It may be dubbed as accurately “Thank a Trained Killer Week”.1 Retired Lt. Col. David Grossman indicates that no institution in America pays more attention to brutalization and desensitization of its recruits than the modern U.S. military:

This brutalization is designed to break down your existing mores and norms and to accept a new set of values that embrace destruction, violence, and death as a way of life. In the end, you are desensitized to violence and accept it as a normal and essential survival skill in your brutal new world (Grossman, no date)2

Please click on: Thank A Trained Killer Week, Dec 19 – 25, 2005

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Footnotes
  1. American soldiers are not “evil.” All kinds of social, economic, and political pressures, not least ethically dubious recruitment methods, propel thousands to sign up. They become killers not because they started that way, but because they are so shaped by the military. See below.[]
  2. See also his website on “killology”, here.[]

Editor

Wayne Northey was Director of Man-to-Man/Woman-to-Woman – Restorative Christian Ministries (M2/W2) in British Columbia, Canada from 1998 to 2014, when he retired. He has been active in the criminal justice arena and a keen promoter of Restorative Justice since 1974. He has published widely on peacemaking and justice themes. You will find more about that on this website: a work in progress.

Always appreciate constructive feedback! Thanks.