A Former Marine on the Marine Motto - First to Fight

http://www.counterpunch.com/white05292004.html

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Marines in my experience hate those who tell us what to do, but we love to fight, because that's what we always train for. We don't train to defend anything. We train to invade, then "locate, close with, and destroy the enemy," per Marine Corps mantra. Nowhere in that doctrine does it say, "defend non-combatant personnel," or "make sure not to kill civilians," or, "defend democracy and freedom for anyone, no matter what nationality, out of a love for those principals," or anything like that. No, we train to destroy the enemy, and enemy status is defined only by those who wish to prosecute war, but who have no interest in risking their own lives to do it. So, it didn't surprise me one bit when my friend told me that although he doesn't agree with the purpose of the war, that he was even more angry with the manner in which the war was being carried out: "Marines aren't trained to fight with political correctness. We're trained to locate, close with, and destroy the enemy, and that means that we should have gone in there and destroyed the entire country first, then built it up afterwards, installing people we trust." I responded with, "But, that works fine for the military mission, but what about all the millions of civilians who would die as a result of that policy?" Again, I was not surprised to hear my friend respond with, "Hey man, I got no mercy. I'm a Marine, you know what I'm sayin?" I said, "yeah, unfortunately, I do." Before walking away, he shook my hand and said, "good seeing you again, and good talking with you. It's just too bad the powers that be have so much power, there's no way to win against them." So there it was. The ultimate in Marine Corps mentality. If you can't beat em, join em.

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Why is this killer instinct cultivated into the Marine psyche? Could this instinct be in every human being, but then just harnessed by the Marine Corps? Well, in my case I had never committed a violent crime before the service (or during or after), nor had I felt the desire ever to mutilate someone, but boot camp training instilled in me not just the ability to kill, but the lust to kill, and as strange as it sounds, they made it feel natural. Killing other human beings was the opposite of what we were brought up with. "Right" meant words, and "wrong" meant force. That is what the Marine Corps must tear down. In order to produce efficient killers, it must remove one's inhibition against killing people, and insert the value of killing people, on command. How is this specifically done? The next installment of First to Fight Culture will elaborate.
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demand a peace culture

in most pc, video, etc. games you have to kill someone or something to win the game ... or blow up, destroy something ...

and it's supposed to be FUN

obviously diddent fully get deprogrammed, literally, in the midel of conversations he'd go off and attack people psychotically, it took a few tries before we figured out he was responding to a key word, when said it would drive him to kill those around him

in certain ways to certain words.

military programming is just that - programming

Join the Military and Get Programmed! It's a Great Life

you know what damage the goverment did? he killed somebody after the war cause of his programming

The military in general is a very closed society. The culture feeds on itself. I was in the Air Force and, as wimpy as the Air Force is compared with the Marine ground forces, even we had some sort of a gung-ho attitude on the inside.

The Marines have perfected it.

But insinuating it's like some "black ops programming" is BS.

Fact is, our media portrays the armed forces in such an unrealistic way that few understand it without actually serving.

I had friends who thought I must have been a bad a$$ after I completed Air Force basic training! Too many Rambo movies floating through their heads.

If they only knew!

I'm a Marine and I have no idea what you are talking about.

he couldent remember what happened when he went berzerk

At an utterance of a word or phrase. I think you are either making this up, your friend had a few too many margaritas that night, or he is yanking your chain.

this was in the 70's-80's, and i'm not making this up

they did psyche experiments on him, theres no denying it

Just expressing skepticism.

everyone who knew him knew he went off on a keyword

We don't train to defend anything.

Um, that's bullshit, and anyone in the military should know that. Marines guard the White House and US Embassies, among other things.

Counterpunch once again demonstrating that it's a giant crock of shit.

i mean some people's anti military nonsense around here is apalling.

regardless people, the military's job is to kill people and break things, first and foremost.

if a marine is "programmed" to get stabby with people and it means he will survive just a little bit more likely, then good.