by Demon of Undoing » Wed May 11, 2011 10:02 pm
It is the common bias among civilized residents of nation states to believe that what they assent to ( the monopoly on violence by the " authorities") is somehow the only moral choice , or that they are the only ones that " do " violence. Not so. Any cop of experience has more time under threat of violence than all but the saltiest of soldiers. The weakest street enforcer , similarly , has more time and experience with actual fights anywhere on the spectrum than all but the saltiest cops ( cf the latest FBI report on officer involved shootings).
In short , your question implies a false choice. Soldiers are not by any stretch the only users and students of violence. In fact , unless we are talking about massive and ongoing wars like we are waging now , they aren't even in the running for the extremes of the title. Plenty of street hoods have done more killing , seen more dying , and been shot more times than your average soldier.
And no , I never went in the military. In retrospect , I am thankful I didn't get sucked into the current mess. The mess I was in was bad enough.
Don't know what it is, but I'm agin'it.