Military histories written from commander viewpoint erase soldiers’ humanity

Evidence

Alfred de Vigny wrote, “The paid man, the soldier, is a glorious pauper, victim, and executioner.” A soldier wields violence and is also exposed to it; he is both an executioner and a victim. But what does he become once the very possibility of being exposed to violence is removed? The fatal conclusion is that he becomes a mere executioner. And that is why he must somehow continue to be a victim if he wishes to continue to be called a soldier. There is a difficulty, though: what could he be the victim of? The only possibility is that he is psychically the victim of having to act as an executioner. That is the only way he can be defined in his own eyes, as in those of society, as the fighter that he no longer is. — Grégoire Chamayou, A Theory of the Drone, 367 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Suppressing conscience in soldiers led directly to military torture; Removing combat exposure reduces soldiers to mere executioners — Grégoire Chamayou, A Theory of the Drone, 367; Years of training failed to transform peasant soldiers’ civilian loyalties.

Related

• Removing combat exposure reduces soldiers to mere executioners (similarity 0.89)
• Suppressing conscience in soldiers led directly to military torture (similarity 0.87)
• Removing risk reduces the soldier to a mere executioner in need of new victimhood (similarity 0.86)
• Mass murder expanded beyond elite cadres to ordinary soldiers (similarity 0.80)
• Combat indifference to killing spread to accept civilian deaths by mistake (similarity 0.80)

Broader Connections

• Removing combat exposure reduces soldiers to mere executioners #corroborates (0.75) — Grégoire Chamayou, A Theory of the Drone, 367