Killing and Dying

A lifetime ago, my squad responded to back up to Interpol trying to put a stop to Serbian People Purple Eaters para-military police going door to door and kicking Bosnians and such out of their homes. They were attempting to resume at least forced relocation. We brought in more backup. There were hundreds of them. My squad and the cops were outnumbered, but literally, it didn’t take long for the rest of the cavalry to arrive. Eventually, weapons were charged, and it looked like it would be a massacre of some sort. Guns were locked and loaded, and I got an order that would have likely been suicide if I had to follow it out. Both sides stood down a little. Nobody wanted to kill each other that day. It would have only taken one person to fire, and it would have been over. There were tanks on a permitter that would have likely wiped us all out. I was on a 50 cal myself. I think people should stop glorifying killing. The fact we avoided killing each other in even the weakest link had insight into the lucidity we all had at the moment. There was actually an investigation into our unwillingness to shoot even when a grenade was thrown during a civilian riot which the other half of my platoon was dealing with outside our observation post at the same time. We were not gods.