Sheepdog Tip of the Day, After Combat tip 139
Most Vietnam veterans did not necessarily execute a personal kill in Vietnam. But they had participated in dehumanizing the enemy in training, and the vast majority of them did fire, or knew in their hearts that they were prepared to fire, and the very fact that they were prepared and able to fire ("Mentally I had killed him") denied them an important form of escape from the burden of responsibility that they brought back from that war. Although they had not killed, they had been taught to think the unthinkable and had thereby been introduced to a part of themselves that under ordinary circumstances only the killer knows. The point is that this program of desensitization, conditioning, and denial defense mechanisms, combined with subsequent participation in a war, may make it possible to share the guilt of killing without ever having killed.
Lt. Col. Dave Grossman, On Killing
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Other killology services:
Bullet Proof Mind for the Armed Citizen Seminar
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Additional Resources
For PTSD, Shepherd Resource Group.