"Cold blooded killers"?....
I think not.
You‘re responding to the insinuation that by "trained killers" what is being implied is that Canadian troops are cold blooded killers. Maybe this guys grandpa isn‘t against the military, and doesn‘t belive that all soldiers are cold blooded killers. Maybe he just doesn‘t want to see his grandson be placed in a situation where he is forced to live the rest of his life with the survivors guilt of combat.
When I included hypothetical scenarios, they were meant to serve as a demonstration that as a civilian, you really wouldn‘t know what to do. However, as a fully trained soldier in the Canadian Armed Forces you would know what to do, or you would be ordered to do something and you would do it, because that‘s what you have been
trained to do.
How could you deploy an infantry platoon to "close with and destroy the enemy" if you haven‘t trained them how to kill?
Just because we don‘t frequently go on the offensive into combat situations as the Americans do, doesn‘t mean we train to be self defense experts, or submission hold aplicators, or missonaries who try to change the world with a bible in their hand.
Our troops carry guns, knives, and explosives. Tools used to injure and kill enemies. The bulk of training to become a soldier relates to a soldiers ability to effectivly engage and defeat an enemy, and how to best insure that he stays alive while doing so. Usually thats going to involve deploying lethal force.
What I‘m trying to say, is that this guys grandpa didn‘t say "why do you want to be a cold blooded killer?". He said "trained killer", which all soldiers are by definition.
I think everyone in this forum understands that our soldiers are much more than simply being trained killers. I think however that getting upset about peoples views which contradict the militaries core functions such as training our youth effective ways to kill people, is a waste of time. There will always be people who have that viewpoint, direct family members especially. The only thing you can really do is try to explain why you belive it‘s right.
People who take it a step further and express the viewpoint that soldier ARE cold blooded killers, or murderers, or women and children killers, obviously have no concept of what our military does in this world, and their extemely uneducated opinion on the matter is worth less than nothing.
It is an incindiary viewpoint when it is expressed, and ironically since they are ones getting on a high horse and taking a position that many "advocates of peace" or "anti military types" are known to take, they are generally making an attempt to incite conflict with someone they deem as a violent person who they think is likely to act out when they are made angry. (which is obviously contrary to their own belief that conflict resolution through violence is wrong)
