How Snipers are Viewed by Soldiers: "Unacceptable to ordinary footsoldiers"

[LanternWaste]

38. In Harry Craig's non-fictional work, Enemy at the Gates

In Harry Craig's non-fictional work, Enemy at the Gates (an account of the battle of Stalingrad), even one of the more quoted soldiers, a German sniper by the name of Major Koenig, states of himself that he's "no true fighting soldier of the Wermacht, and less a man because of it."


In Citizen Soldier, Ambrose interviews a GI (chapter 10, Night on the Line) who says, "...but we all hated the sniper. Jerry's, Joe's and Tommy's (Germans, Americans and British solders respectively) alike thought little of those guys. During Elsenborn especially, we made it a point to break them down like rag-dolls if we could get our hands on 'em."

But if Clausewitz was correct when he wrote that "the only purpose of war is to prevent the enemy from waging war", we have to realize that each progression of military tactics, regardless of how efficient or effective that tactic may be, can be seen as less than honorable. The American militia, refusing to fight in standard battle lines, were seen as cowards by the British, the Vietnamese, practicing those same tactics were seen as cowards by the Americans 175 years later, and the terrorist bombing of civilians today are referred to as cowards by the majority of the west. But in each case, the tactic was effective, forced the opposition to react rather than act, and can easily become a standard itself.

War sucks. No way to rationalize it as anything other than the greatest og human weaknesses.