Isn't boredom the most dangerous thing for soldiers?
Since like ever
this post was submitted on 11 Aug 2025
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NonCredibleDefense
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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.
No, that title goes to bad Lieutenants. Which is also the cause in the OOP
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
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.
Every good commander knows you never let a platoon run out of crayons to chew on
Damn, did the lieutenant never hear the phrase "Hurry up and wait"?
"Don't just do something. Stand there!"
Bored soldier playing war games: .... ¯_(ツ)_/¯ .... I guess I'll just die then.
Now EOD can capture the objective by themselves.
gets shot by the squad waiting inside
If you got time to lean...
That means the exercise ended early and everyone got to go back to their barracks
And then get 60 extra hours of extra training over the next month.
Would they otherwise get that time off?
Yeah, when you fuck up in the military, of its mild enough it's just pushups, but beyond that, the first thing to go is your free time. Especially if it was a large part of a unit.