On Killing by LtCol Dave Grossman, 2009, Excerpts
At hand-to-hand combat range the
instinctive resistance to killing becomes strongest. The horror associated
pinning a man down and feeling him struggle and watching him bleed to death is
barely tolerable.
An obvious method of killing an
opponent involves a crushing blow to the throat, yet it is not a natural act;
it is a repellant one. The single most effective and mechanically easiest way
to inflict significant damage on a human being with one’s hand is to punch a
thumb through his eye and on into the brain, subsequently stirring the
intruding digit around inside the skull, cocking it off toward the side, and
forcefully pulling the eye and other matter out with the thumb.
High-level students trained in this
killing technique practice punching their thumbs into oranges held or taped
over the eye socket of an opponent. The process is made even more realistic by
having the victim scream, twitch, and jerk as the killer punches his thumb to
the hilt into the orange and then rips it back out. Few individuals can walk
away from their first such rehearsal without being badly shaken and disturbed
by the action they have just mimicked. The fact that they are overcoming some
form of natural resistance is obvious.
Indeed, it is almost too painful to think of it. This procedure of
precisely rehearsing and mimicking a killing action is an excellent way of
ensuring that the individual is capable of performing the act in combat.
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