On Killing by LtCol Dave Grossman, 2009, Excerpts
Those who engage in a policy of
atrocity usually strike a bargain that exchanges their future for a brief gain
in the present. Though brief, that gain is nonetheless real and powerful. In
order to understand the attraction of atrocity, we must understand and clearly
acknowledge those benefits that cause individuals, groups and nations to turn
to it.
Each soldier who actively or
passively participates in such mass executions is faced with a stark choice. On
the one hand, the soldier can resist the incredibly powerful array of forces
that call for him to kill, and he will instantly be denied his nation, his
leaders, and his friends and will most likely be executed along with the other
victims of this horror. On the other hand, the soldier can bow before the
social and psychological forces that demand that he kill, and in doing so he
will be strangely empowered.
He must believe that not only is
this atrocity right, but it is proof that he is morally, socially, and
culturally superior to those whom he has killed. He firmly believes that the
enemy is less than human and is deserving of what has happened. He must
violently attack anyone or anything that would threaten his beliefs. His mental
health is totally invested in believing that what he has done is good and
right. It is the blood of his victims that binds and empowers him to even
greater heights of killing and slaughter.
Those who command atrocities are
powerfully bonded by blood and guilt to those who commit atrocities, and their
cause, since only the success for their cause can ensure that they will not
have to answer for their actions. With totalitarian dictators, it is their
secret police and other such Praetorian guard-type units who can be counted on
to fight for their leader and their cause to the bitter end. Nicolae
Ceausescu’s state police in Romania and Hitler’s SS units are two examples of
units bonded to their leaders by atrocity. By ensuring that their men
participate in atrocities, there is no possibility of reconciliation with the
enemy. They are inextricably linked to the fate of their leader. Trapped in
their logic and their guilt, those who commit atrocities see no alternatives
other than total victory or total defeat in a great Gotterdammerung.
Those who attempt to wield atrocity
as a systematic national policy have ultimately been struck down by this
two-edged sword. Those who choose the path of atrocity have burned their
bridges behind them. There is no turning back. Those who commit atrocities
understand that what they are doing will be considered criminal by the rest of
the world, and this is why at the level of nation-states they attempt to
control their population and press.
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