On Killing by LtCol Dave Grossman, 2009, Excerpts
There is a thermal-imagery device or
a night-vision device for almost every combat soldier. Thermal imagery “sees”
the heat emitted by a body as if it were bright. Thus it works to see through
rain, fog, and smoke. It permits you to perceive through camouflage, and it
make it possible to detect enemy soldiers deep in wood lines and vegetation
that would once have completely concealed them.
Night-vision devices provide a
superb form of psychological distance by converting the target into an inhuman
blob. The complete integration of thermal-imagery technology into the modern
battlefield has extended to daylight hours the mechanical distance process that
currently exists during the night. Now the battlefield appears to every soldier
as it were happening on a TV screen. “I see someone running and I shoot at him
and he falls, and it all looks like something on TV.” Nintendo warfare has
evolved into video game combat in Iraq and Afghanistan.
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