I have yet to meet anyone in the military who thinks they have the right to commit unjustified, pointless, cold blooded murder. Indeed, such actions are much more common in civilian life than in the military.
When it comes to operations, the number I have served with in testing and demanding environments who have chosen not to fire a single shot is legion. The VSOs use the phrase 'courageous restraint' but the informal 'scared restraint' is also apt.
Coping with and managing those who have been exposed to or had to make the ultimate decision is not easy either and in all the conflicts I have served in the decision not to escalate to lethal force has outstripped the decision to do so by many orders of magnitude.
Last edited by Just This Once...; 17th Dec 2016 at 16:38.