Entering the minds of snipers

A very interesting piece, courtesy of the BBC, which can be accessed here. It shows snipers as very ordinary humans, who tend to think of the people they have killed as human beings (rather than dehumanising them as animals or machines).

This piece brings out a whole range of issues. SLA Marshall’s Men Under Fire – which argued that most soldiers never discharge their weapons they way they were trained to do, and that most soldiers can go through entire wars without ever knowing that they actually killed an enemy combatant – comes immediately to mind. The portrayal of the Somalis in the film Blackhawk Down, which was criticised by some scholars, as nameless masses also comes to mind.

Advertisement