No, in principle, the course is not impractical - the current
practice, however, is something I strongly disagree with.
laser51088 almost got it correct, except for one thing. I am not
assuming that anyone has gone to the extreme. The fact that we have
a dead trainee shows that things have already gone to the extreme -
there is no assumption here. Anybody defending the instructor's
perspective is by extension defending taking things to that
extreme.
It seems that those who take a different view to Nathan or myself
seem to be getting at the principle of "whatever does not kill you
will make you stronger". Well and good, except that it operates
upon the assumption that it does not kill you. In this case, the
assumption has obviously been violated.
For those who argue for realism in training, the question is, what
is the point at which increasing realism produces diminishing
returns?
For argument's sake, let us go down the alternative line of
argument. In the event of a real war, the enemy will try drowning
POWs to get information out of them, so we train our troops to
withstand that. Well and good. But wait, they might also try
driving hot skewers into people to get information. Fine - we'll
turn our trainees into kebabs. Hmm - they might also try skinning
prisoners like the Lebanese do. Okay, let's string the boys up and
peel them like oranges.
See where this is going?
Well and good that we prepare our troops for the realities of the
situation. At the end of the day, the objective is to try to ensure
that they don't sing like canaries when they are captured. Within
limits, there is a point to CST training inasmuch as we have to get
the troops prepared for the event that an enemy will not be
civilised and respect the Geneva Convention. There is no utility in
taking it to the point where one trainee is drowned and five others
are hospitalised. That is just a waste of manpower, and it makes
2Sgt Hu's death pointless.
One point I take particular exception to is 35MM Gunner's question,
"did it occur 2 u tat they (instructors) r actually prolonging
their lives (trainees)????? ". I would have thought that the answer
is fairly obvious - 2Sgt Hu was KILLED in the training. One would
have to be blind, deaf or particularly stupid to not see that this
is a case of SHORTENING lives, not prolonging them.
