We Teach Them To Kill

Lois M. Scheel

1995

Published in:

Social Trends Newsletters, Dec. 1995, No. 142

In the 1930s, Spencer Tracy and Franchot Tone starred in a World War I movie titled, We Teach Them To Kill. This movie did not become a blockbuster, and certainly neither the government nor the military heartily supported it; the essence of its message was strong stuff.

Franchot Tone started out as a timid draftee with Tracy as his war buddy who tried to help him overcome his fear of guns, and killing in self defense. Even running a bayonet through a straw dummy caused Tone to turn squeamish and faint. As the war progressed, however, he began to recognize the power his gun gave him. By the time the war ended, killing an enemy soldier didn't phase him one bit. Even as the bells tolled, announcing the end of the war, he couldn't resist picking off one more enemy soldier who had already thrown down his gun, overjoyed that the war was over.

World War I servicemen returned home to face economic hard times. Tone supported himself with his gun, robbing and killing to make an indecent living. In the end Tracy, who never enjoyed killing anyone, even enemy soldiers, shot Tone in self defense. As he looked down on his former friend's lifeless body, he said: ``We taught him to kill.''

Of course this was fiction, but how many times can the reason for acts of violence be traced to a warped outlook from training for war and war itself. And nowhere are masters so adept in the training of potential killers as those who teach the young and impressionable how to prepare for war.

The one thing these fledgling warriors are not taught is that if no one profited from war, there would be no wars. In World War II billionaires were made while young men risked their lives on the battlefield for $30 a month. By the time those who survived returned home, they had lost several years of their youth to war while the armchair warriors raked in the profits.

World War I, claimed by politicians to be the war to end all wars, preceded the Great Depression. Twenty years later World War Two proved that all wars hadn't ended as promised by earlier leaders, but this war pulled the economy up to heights never before known, ending the Great Depression. Preparation for war created new jobs, at least for as long as the war lasted, and thousands of the young workers gave up their jobs to go to war. There were so many jobs around, one could make a choice, and many women went to work for the first time.

After the success of World War IIin building up the economy, hey...why not have perpetual war! We were blessed with the Korean War, and Vietnam, and the long, cold war with Russia. Government-induced propaganda against Russia and other countries became so instilled in the American people that many of them haven't recovered from it yet. Few complained about the unprovoked military assault on Grenada: the CIA-assisted mining of a Nicaraguan harbor; unilateral support of so-called ``contra'' terrorists directed by old Somoza types; extensive and caring assistance to Marcos and Duvalier, both well-known criminals in their own countries; the bombing of Libya, which killed Muammar Qaddafi's infant daughter; CIA assistance in the assassination of the duly elected leader of Chile; The Gulf War; disagreement with every arms control proposal of any kind; two-trillion dollars spent on armaments in six years with no war in sight.

That was yesterday, but things haven't changed much today. Recent reports say that the pentagon will be issued more operating funds than it requests. Already the military is planning ways to spend this extra booty. How about a giant blimp, a 1,485-foot craft that could get tanks to hot spots in a hurry as reported by the Jane's Defense Weekly: ``Using a fleet of airships, each with a potential 50 ton lifting capacity, the Joint Chiefs of Staff would be able to guarantee a fully capable military response to any future act of aggression in days, rather than weeks.'' Of course when the military gets a new toy, it usually finds an excuse to use it. But that's not all. ``Star Wars'' may get a booster shot. And how about the $493 million B-2 bomber! How many more of these do we need? Undoubtedly there are more military schemes on the back burner. And our government talks about balancing the budget in seven years?

How many American citizens have heard of The School of the Americas? The U.S. Army school located in Fort Benning, Georgia? This school is sometimes known by other names, especially in Latin America: School of the Dictators, School of the Assassins, School of the Coup. Although it is located only a short distance from CNN headquarters in Atlanta, it has had little TV coverage, even though it qualifies for everything the media goes for: terror, shooting, killing... This school, located on American soil, has trained the likes of Guatemalan Col. Julio Alpirez, a CIA operative who was implicated in two murder crimes recently; this school has trained Salvadoran mass murderer Roberto D'Aubuisson; this school has trained many others of equal notoriety, including General Manuel Antonio Noriega, whom we first trained and later turned against. If any other country maintained a school that promotes terrorism--kidnappers, torturers and assassins--we would condemn it. And now, as stated in the October, 1995 issue of National Geographic: ``The U.S. Army is sneaking up on the next century at Fort Benning, Georgia, as it tests `smart gear' now being developed for combat. ...Wired in, their weapon sights and helmet-mounted video cameras capture images for transmission. Ultimately, a network will link similarly outfitted infantry to tanks, helicopters, and command posts, allowing rapid assessment of the battle, more effective troop movement, and more accurate artillery targeting.''

While the U.S. Congress plots to cut benefits for the poor, our government keeps the School of the Americas open with millions of taxpayer dollars yearly.

And now how easy it is to learn to make a bomb. Check out the internet for instructions, or books in the local library, or certain magazines. Nothing to it. Some amateurs blow themselves up first but others, like the bombers of the Federal Building in Oklahoma City and the New York Trade Center, or car bombers, or bombers by mail, graduate to carry out successful devastation. Lately there have been reports of pipe bombs being placed in rural mail boxes.

We teach them to kill in other ways besides preparing for war and making bombs: it's okay to kill wildlife in the name of sportsmanship; it's okay to move into wildlife habitats and then kill that wildlife because it might eat us or it becomes a nuisance; it's okay to move into the forest for privacy and then kill the trees because they provide too much shade, or they shed their foliage on our roof, or they feed our fireplace, or we can get big bucks for them; it's okay to wipe out brush and trees that hold riverbanks together so we can have a view; it's okay to clearcut the forests in the name of ``forest management'' (the Forest Service's euphemism for profit) and in the process bring about erosion, loss of top soil, rivers filled with silt and debris, and dried-up streams where salmon used to spawn; it's okay to contaminate the oceans with refuse and oil spills; it's okay to over-fish the ocean and then blame sea lions for the shortage of seafood--so let's cut down on the population of the sea lions--, and now shark meat is considered a table delicacy, the ocean's natural predator that helps keep the sea lion population in balance; it's okay to drain wetlands to use for purposes other than for what nature intended, endangering the bird population that frequents them; it's okay to overgraze the land and kill off native grasses. This is what we teach our children instead of stressing the importance of ecological balance and preservation of our natural resources. This is how we teach them to inadvertently kill the future for their grandchildren.

Because of easy access to guns, killing for a living has become such an every day occurrence, we've come to accept it. Instead of getting to the source of the problem, we try to solve it by barricading our houses; by demanding more police on the beat; by building more jails to incarcerate the already deprived. Until we close the tremendous gap between the rich and the poor, crime will always be with us. The late columnist, Sydney J. Harris, once wrote: ``The kind of prisons a society has, and the kind of persons it takes in and turns out, reveal more about the essence of that society than any other of its institutions. We make and get the criminals we deserve.''

The growing tolerance of killing takes hold in other frightening ways. In America, often referred to as an armed camp, the citizens arm themselves against intruders and street muggers. Some states pass laws that allow people to obtain permits to carry concealed handguns. Some states try to make these laws mandatory. Many of these ``right to bear arms'' defenders of life and liberty do not realize that they would have to have their gun in hand at all times to be ready for an assault. (Now just wait a minute Mr. Burglar--just hold off until I get my gun. Let's see. Where did I put it? But little children can find it.) Even police officers know that being armed doesn't always protect them if the assailant gets the jump on them, and the police go through extensive training in learning how to defend themselves.

Children are killing children and children are killing their parents and children are killing their teachers with the guns their parents keep around for protection. These children must have learned that it is okay to kill from somewhere. Many are too young to realize the consequences of their actions; the actors they see killed in movies and TV shows always come back to life.

Thou shalt not kill, the most profound of the Ten Commandments, is too often ignored by even most of the professed religious in our midst. The U.S. militias sprouting up around the country to protect themselves from real or imagined government abuses pack both guns and Bibles. This is the contradictory, violent atmosphere their children grow up in. They learn to hate and kill at an early age.

A report of new lessons in killing appeared in an article in Newsweek, October 30, 1995 edition. ``Women hunters take to the wilderness, guns cocked and bows nocked.'' These new hunters are ``retrofitting their rifles to accommodate their shorter arms'', and many come ``equipped with drop-seat pants to accommodate nature's call.'' Some female hunters consider the hunt ``a reverence for nature and spend hours with their dead prey thinking about why it was there, where it lived, what it was doing--a spiritual thing...''

Federal Cartridge Company deals out free bullets to these new hunters in a plot to keep them hooked.

The Browning Corporation, which makes 12 kinds of sporting shotguns, began selling lighter versions designed specifically for smaller arms and hands.

State wildlife departments, which get the bulk of their revenues from hunting and fishing licenses, see these new hunters as a ``way to refill their coffers.''

Wilderness workshops designed to accommodate women hunters are run by state fish and game departments with help from ammo makers.

Of course these new hunters are supported by The National Rifle Association with free gifts.

And these new hunters are teaching their daughters how to ``match wits with nature.'' (In all fairness why not throw down the gun and ``match instincts'' with nature and see who wins.)

One 14-year-old girl said that hunting was better than selling Girl Scout Cookies. A 13-year-old, who couldn't wait to shoot her first duck and mount it at the foot of her bed, saw no harm in killing ducks ``because there were so many of them.''

One female hunter compared butchering domestic animals for food with killing wildlife for food. No difference. Ignored was the fact that our wildlife helps to steady nature's intricate balance.

Another female hunter said she enjoyed eating meat more when she could shoot it herself.

Instead of cutting down on the population of wildlife, the proliferation of the human species should be curbed as it is the fastest growing and most dangerous predator of all.