The gun Nidal Hasan used
to kill at Fort Hood

When tragedy strikes at a military base like Food Hood yesterday, or when suicides rapidly increase with soldiers and veterans, reportedly about 22 a day since 2008, people ask the question why. Why are these wars, Iraq and Afghanistan, producing more soldiers and veterans with serious mental health issues? There are no easy answers but one place most are afraid to look is at the training that soldiers are receiving for these wars.

Actually, in the film Soldiers of Conscience the military makes clear how its training of soldiers has significantly changed after World War II, when they made a study and found out that only one of four soldiers fired his weapon at the enemy. From 25% we have now gone to 95% in these recent wars. What changed? The military says how by incorporation of video games, “reflexive fire drills” and other methods of killing without thought or conscience is the reason why the shooting at other human persons has gone up.

In January of 2000 the Ethic professor West Point presented a paper to the Joint Services Conference on Professional Ethics in which he argued the “Military Leaders’ Obligation to Justify Killing in War” Before the Iraq and Afghanistan war the military was aware of the dangers of teaching reflexive killing. In part he said:

“Training which drills soldiers on how to kill without explaining to them why it is morally permissible for them to do so is harmful to them, yet that is the current norm. Modern combat training conditions soldiers to act reflexively to stimuli—such as fire commands, enemy contact, or the sudden appearance of a “target”—and this maximizes soldiers’ lethality, but it does so by bypassing their moral autonomy. Soldiers are conditioned to act without considering the moral repercussions of their actions; they are enabled to kill without making the conscious decision to do so. In and of itself, such training is appropriate and morally permissible. Battles are won by killing the enemy, so military leaders should strive to produce the most efficient killers. The problem, however, is that soldiers who kill reflexively in combat will likely one day reconsider their actions reflectively. If they are unable to justify to themselves the fact that they killed another human being, they will likely—and understandably—suffer enormous guilt. This guilt manifests itself as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and it has damaged the lives of thousands of men who performed their duty in combat. [3]” (“Military Leaders’ Obligation to Justify Killing in War”)

Naturally the military could not justify “reflexive killing”, killing without conscience but
continued teaching this type of killing which violates nature, faith and the conscience of human beings. Marquette University, a Jesuit Catholic University, ROTC officer training program teaches killing without conscience which violates the teaching of Catholic Church on conscience. But Marquette, just like the government and media,ignore the effects it has on returning soldiers. There have been many psychological and brain studies of the effects on human beings, yet it continues and we continue to wonder why mental health, brain illnesses, is such a major factor in today’s soldiers and veterans. But no matter how many studies, books, films, workshops, talks and personal testimony there is about how this training has effected soldiers it continues to be ignored as contributing factor to increased killings, suicides and health troubles of our soldiers and veterans. (Another film on PBS that is worth seeing on the effects of these types of wars on soldiers when they return home is Wounded Platoon

Teaching young men and women “to kill or be killed” and to kill reflexively, firing weapons instinctively as of the officer on TV today claimed was taught at Ft. Hood, is catching up with us and we need to Break the Silence on how reflexive killing is killing us.

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