Absolutely. We had people that wouldn’t get into the bomb bunkers when sirens went off. You spend 16 hours a day working and then your 3 hours of "free time" is cowering in a bunker? I’d rather die.

[–] ininewcrow@lemmy.ca 28 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (1 children)

If your troops get really bored all the time, they eventually start realizing or remembering how shitty their lives really are in the country they live in and start thinking of working for themselves rather than a nation.

The most terrible thing you can do to a soldier is to give them too much time to think.

Humans really are the most unstable weapon in any military

[–] TRBoom@lemmy.zip 18 points 4 days ago

This sort of thing is more of a practical problem really. From my experience (this is US centric, I do know other countries do things differently) it would be the rare trooper who could think they way you're suggesting. Most of them are still really young.

Troops are kept occupied so they don't start axe throwing contests in the woods while facing each other to see how close they can get it to the other person's head.

Or make MRE bombs.

Or gather all the piss jugs together and deliver them unto the First Sausage.

It has nothing to do with philosophy and everything to do with having 100s or 1000s of barely adult people all grouped together with nothing at all to do but invent their own 'fun'.

NOW. The VA in the US exists to provide what you're suggesting. Bored, disgruntled, or out of work veterans are extremely dangerous. They're more mature, link problems to actual causes, and can spontaneously organize.

Look up the Bonus Army to see what veterans get up to when pressed.

[–] mnemonicmonkeys@sh.itjust.works 11 points 4 days ago

No, that title goes to bad Lieutenants. Which is also the cause in the OOP