Quote:
Originally posted by Pacifier
But they are supposed to follow the orders without questiong, robot is a bit harsh, but comes close. If soldiers starting to argue if their mission/ the order is correct they are worthless.
Hell no, not during combat. Combat runs on reflexes, on instinct. If the soldier starts thinking during combat he might not shoot at the enemy.
I old times the percentage of soldiers who actually shot at the enemy was pretty low, even in WW2. In the amercian civil war they found rifels that were loaded multiple times withput beeing shot.
With modern training this percentage was increased. They trained the soldiers to shoot automatically without thinking first. see enemy -> shoot, no questions.
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Not really.
There are certain things we do in combat that are trained responses. Those are automatic. In the US Army we call them battle drills. Everyone knows what they are supposed to do to react to a certain situation, and they do it without being told.
Some orders are followed without any conscious thought, but these are usually "duck", "Gas, Gas, Gas", and other imediate issues that are as likely to be given by the lowest ranking soldier as the highest.
In most western armies the order given demands the interpretation of the reciever. If I tell my 2nd squad leader to "flank right and assault the objective", it is up to him to choose the best route, to time his assault, to tell me if he thinks that it would be more advantageous to flank left, etc. We fight well
because of the input of every team member. Of course the final descision is made by the leader, and that descision is followed.