2009-05-13 My Son’s 3rd birthday as I lay in a one man pup tent in the Moroccan Sahara Desert, a world away from home. I make no claims to being right or wrong in my own assessments contained herein, these are merely my own opinions and musings based off of what I have learned and experience these last 25 years. They are definitely open for your own interpretation and discussion is welcome.

Part One

“Kill! Kill! Kill!” the oft repeated mantra of a fresh Marine Corps recruit. Designed to loosen the pre-conceived notions of moral right and wrong in one who will become a fighting man.
What does it really mean?

How do I, as a human being that tries to always take the moral high ground when dealing with my fellow man, feel about it?

The path I have chosen in life has put me in the position where I will most likely have to kill someone in the course of my duty. Probably several in as short a time as the next few months.

Both careers I am pursuing, as a SWAT operator/law enforcement officer and as a Marine Corps infantryman have taught, and will continue to teach in their blunt and brutally efficient way, to ultimately kill people.

End the situation through superior violence of action. Achieve our nations goals by destroying the enemy. Put down the violent criminal, so he can no longer pose a threat.

Am I ready for this? Will I be able to pull that trigger when called upon to act, and with no time to think? To take my enemies life and take on any burden of stress and doubt that may come after such a traumatic and life altering event?

I’m not a complete stranger to this concept. I have experienced the feeling of sending rounds downrange at a perceived enemy. So I know the mental disconnect from reality. I know how surreal it can be.

A harsh truth I have come to be intimately familiar with, not as of yet through direct personal experience is that “…some people just need killing.” In my culture, in my country this line of thought flies in the face of what would be considered normal thinking. Normal morals. Normal values.

No one, is born a killer. And no one is raised to kill others. At least, not in our society. In our… “safe,” pocket of reality. It is not the social norm to kill people. In point of fact, we are raised to the contrary, living our lives taught that killing is wrong…

…Or are we?

Not if you play video games, or watch television, or go to the movies. Not, if you actually pay attention to what sort of “entertainment media” society is producing and indoctrinating our youth with.
Sex is bad, violence is good.

Kill orcs, kill criminals, kill monsters, or aliens, or those who wrong you, kill the guy that comes onto your turf, kill. Kill those who look at you wrong, or don’t believe what you do. Kill those who are different. Kill a school full of students. Okay.

So where is the line? Why is there such moral outrage when someone kills our children, even though we are so quick to flood them with extraordinary violence and slaughter? to effectively raise them to believe that violence is the ultimate answer to our problems?

Don’t misinterpret me. I love action movies and violent war movies etc. I merely raise the point that we cannot blame our problems on someone else, or on the media (though they are bloody thirsty, self interested mongrels that would sell you out in an instant, caring only about money and the sensationalism of the story. /end rant).

WE have only to look to ourselves to figure out what is wrong with our society. We need to take responsibility for our actions, and our in actions.

When does killing leave the realm of what is morally acceptable by societal standards and become wrong, unjust or evil?

The State, or governing body of the people reserves the right to enforce capital punishment. That is, to KILL, if deemed necessary, anyone who has transgressed in such a manner that the punishment would be appropriate in accordance with the current laws and articles governing said establishment.

The average citizen, barring imminent danger requiring legitimate self defense, does not share that same right; Persey.

A citizen cannot in our society cannot perceive a wrong to be done, and take it upon himself to seek out the perpetrator and execute him. In effect administering capital punishment.
Why? Because that person isn’t who we, as a societal whole, have given the trust to. He’s not who we have trained and set guidelines for. It’s not the person we have given permission to kill others.

Consider the following:

A thug, or gang-banger, caught up in a vicious turf war, kills a rival gang-banger. In the process, several innocent bystanders are also killed by his actions. This fundamentally, is morally and ethically wrong to us.

A soldier is involved in an intense firefight. A strong and determined enemy is intent on murdering him by any means necessary.

Through measured tactical response, the soldier is able to repel the enemy assault and kill several enemy combatants in the process.
Unfortunately, several innocent bystanders are wounded or killed in the battle.

This is what’s called collateral damage, and while it involved the deaths of innocents, a certain amount of collateral damage is considered “acceptable” by government standards.

What ultimately is the difference? Is there a difference? In both scenarios innocents are killed. Why is it acceptable in one scenario, but not the other? I realize that this is a black and white interpretation, but it is just a rough example.

I feel that the difference has somewhat to do with the intent or reason behind the act of violence. For the gangbanger, lets assume his intent was to protect his honor. To illicit fear, terror etc. in his perceived enemy to garner what he believes is respect, notoriety and glory.

Ultimately what his reasoning boils down to is that he killed another purely to exert his will upon others. To put himself in a position of power and to take away the freedom and life of the other. This is despotism of a sort on a miniature scale and is abhorrently wrong.

End Part One.