During the Vietnam

War the soldiers were taught to override
natural instinct and, as a consequence, the 95% rule was
reversed -95% of the soldiers did kill. This reversal was due
to the psychological training that the soldiers were put
through. The American soldiers went through a period of
desensitisation and dehumanisation: they watched video
footage of the Viet Cong acting out atrocities -killing,
butchering, raping women and children -until they no longer
saw their enemy as human beings, rather they viewed them
as animals. When they shot at the Vet Cong they were
merely shooting rats on a river bank. It is slightly peripheral
to this book, but I have to say that dehumanisation, in my
opinion is not a good thing, it is used here only to give
example to my point.