Sheepdog Tip of the Day, Before Combat tip 130
An additional aspect ... that deserves consideration here is the development of a denial defense mechanism. Denial and defense mechanisms are unconscious methods for dealing with traumatic experiences. Prepackaged denial defense mechanisms are a remarkable contribution from modern U.S. Army training. Basically the soldier has rehearsed the process so many times that when he does kill in combat he is able to, at one level, deny to himself that he is actually killing another human being. This careful rehearsal and realistic mimicry of the act of killing permit the soldier to convince himself that he has only "engaged" another target. One British veteran of the Falklands, trained in the modern method, told Holmes that he "thought of the enemy as nothing more or less than Figure II [man shaped] targets." In the same way, an American soldier can convince himself that he is shooting at an E type silhouette (a man shaped, olive drab target), and not a human being.
Lt. Col. Dave Grossman, On Killing
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Additional Resources
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