Re: Initiative - was RE: Piquet

On Wed, 29 Sep 2004 05:41:39 -0400, Laserlight <laserlight@quixnet.net>
wrote:
> I said:

> a) I was thinking of Col Grossman's book _On Killing_

Grossman overstates and oversimplifies the issue.  Motivating people
to kill is easy and the Army has been doing it for years.  And we make
jokes about it afterwards.  :)

> b) we need to allow for troops who aren't decently trained--IF or PAU
> militia, for instance.

The other issue is that people hesitate to kill people.  But the
definition of 'people' varies.	To a Japanese, anyone not Japanese is
not People, hence Rape of Nanking, torture and rape of Korean women,
beheading of Allied POWs, etc.

To a Nazi, Jews are not people so it's OK to shove them in gas chambers.

To the average sub-Saharan African, people from other tribes are not
people, so chopping a few thousand of them up with machetes is no big
deal.

Grossman is, from what I recall, dealing mostly with 'Mericans and
extrapolates to the rest of the world.

In short, I find it highly unlikely that any but the worst-trained
levies are going to sit and chill with good targets in front of them. 
Besides which, motivating people to pull triggers is NCO business at
the fireteam/squad level, and not appropriate subject matter for a
wargame at the platoon/company level.

John