what you want proof they have a selection tion process, to weed out people who arnt aggressive enough or that they fail people in training who dont display a disregard for human life. just say I'm sorry I'm not shooting this man shaped target asI have no intention of ever killing anybody and your out, or you get a job in the stores
I've decided not to wait for your response. I have things to do, and I don't want to leave this unsaid. Your comment about the military is ignorant and wholly offensive.
I served, all told, twenty three years in the military. The fast majority of that time was, as I have mentioned elsewhere, as a medic. On my last deployment, while my MOS, or my official job, was as a medic, I served as an assistant squad leader in an Area Reaction Force. I believe I mentioned that as well. I accepted the fact from day one that I might need to take human life, and that I was signing a blank check for my own. I also accepted the fact that the purpose of the military is the forceful projection of power via the ability to engage in combat operations when diplomacy fails. Whether defensively or offensively, the military fights and attempts to ruin the enemy's will to fight. Yes, that involves killing them. It does not mean wholesale slaughter and indiscriminate killing, though.
To this day I have friends that are closer to me than family by blood because of our shared experiences and our trust in one another. I have also lost friends in combat, whom I think of often with sadness. If we break down the definition of empathy to its most basic form, "the ability to understand and share the feelings of another," I don't believe it is possible to serve in the military without such ability. If one can't empathize with those one is serving with, one will not be able to trust, nor gain the trust of those most important to survival. This is also true of the populace the military deals with and often attempts to protect.
As an NCO, I will say It is certainly almost impossible to be a good leader without empathy. As a leader, if I had not been able to empathize, I couldn't have looked out for the best interest of those soldiers serving under me, and worked to keep them as safe as circumstances dictated, and fought for their interests when command became disinterested, among other things.
Since it is painfully, offensively obvious that you have no clue what you are talking about, allow me to elaborate. One of my friends who died in Afghanistan was an NCO in the military, yet an attorney in civilian life, as I am. He wasn't just any attorney, though. He served with the Public Defender's office, providing services to the indigent, when he had the ability to earn far more money, far more easily elsewhere. Many of my friends from the military are now in the medical field, paramedics, nurses and physician's assistants, trying to make the lives of others better, and indeed, keep them alive. They deal with the PTSD and other issues that people who are highly empathetic deal with.
As for myself, I served for over a decade at our prosecutor's office seeking to protect abused and neglected children. Dealing with sleepless nights before trials, my worry that I might miss something and lose, and a child be put into danger because of it keeping me awake. I have had tears in my eyes as I have asked a judge to issue a Do Not Rescucitate Order for a child who had been so violently shaken by a family member that his brain was swelling and his brain stem was being forced down into his spinal column, and the medical personnel all believed it was the right thing to do. HOW DARE YOU suggest I, or any one of the countless soldiers I have been proud to serve with and call brothers and sisters are not caring, empathetic individuals. To do so shows your ignorance, and so much more.
Of course, I can't help but think of the fact that you are one of the more glibly violence advocates on this forum. I could only shake my head in disbelief when I read your comment that "[and] if you made a kid of mine stand with their nose against the wall, I'd punch your lights out' on another thread.
If this causes this thread to be locked, my apologies to the original posters and all those who were benefitting from it, as well as moderators and admins. I believe this needed to be said. This person is simply loathsome.
