The killing game has become so commonplace and a natural part of life, that we have established a complete semantic regimen around this activity so that we need not feel guilty about our direct involvement in it. We have given it a uniform and raison d'etre.

Every now and then we see it in some form or other: Napoleon proud and arrogant on his white horse, hand clutching his belly, overlooking the battlefield upon which the lives of many of his soldiers will be cruelly snuffed out – at his behest. This is a scene that has probably played itself out on battlefields many times before and surely have after he extracted his right hand from his tunic the last time. Repeated showings of movie clips taken during the two world wars, show similar scenes:  General so-and-so, clenching a pipe between his teeth – calmly puffing, sitting in the front of a jeep, overlooking the landscape where battles will be fought on his command, or row upon row of soldiers over who's death he presides, or the admiral, sternly peering at the horizon trying to identify his prey, while his sailors are prematurely entombed below deck, waiting, blind, for the moment when his world will be turned into the fiery pit of Dante  .

Our city is also the home of the army and the air force so there are many soldiers - of all ranks - to be encountered perambulating the sidewalks in their sharp, neat uniforms. As with most people who wear uniforms, one usually immediately has an idea of the kind of function they perform in life. A fireman puts out fire and rescues kittens from trees – although not in our country, here they are too arrogant. The police fine you for speeding, speaking on your phone while driving, and catch criminals – although in our country they don’t. A postman delivers your post or sometimes dumps his bag of mail in a field. A doctor in his white jacket, sits behind a desk looking at a computer, prescribes medicine and then sends you an account. A soldier is not really any more difficult to identify. They belong to a hierarchy of killers; but it is not so simple though. The ones without stripes, pips, and other shoulder-paraphernalia – in other words the junior ranks, they do the killing. The senior ranks plan (referred as the science of war) and oversee the extermination of people from their own side as well as those of the opposition. The opposing side, of course, has a similar plan of action thereby assuring that as many people as possible are removed from the planet’s surface. In our country, the most senior overseer of the kill is the minister of defence. In countries like the USA, the president is the ultimate harbinger of death. Some countries such as Costa Rica, Dominica and Grenada have no armies and seemingly have no taste for killing. There are also some countries which also have no military force but who have agreements with other countries to wipe their backsides.

I have always been astounded that there are so many souls who visit earth and who select to spend their lives striving to the unproductive past-time of extinguishing lives. We encounter these folks in officialdom – for example, armies of real and shadow governments; semi-officialdoms such as gangs, terrorists, rebels, etc., and, of course, the independent annihilators of lives – what we commonly refer to as criminal murderers. The principal difference is, of course, that criminal murderers are not officially sanctioned by a government that we collectively appoint via ‘democratic’ processes or are, alternatively, self-appointed. [Side note: according to conspiracy theorists, my assumptions are not quite correct. According to them a host of alternative shadow groups run the world, and thus the armies. If so, that would cast a totally different light on things.] To get back to my story. I see these men (and now women as well) in uniform on the streets, some of whom are acquaintances and coffee-friends, and I can’t help thinking: “there goes a person whose job it is to plan or perpetrate the most effective manner of destroying as many people as possible.” Of course the uniform helps in the identification. Obviously, those without identifying-attire are not as candid in announcing their main purpose in life but the end result of their actions are essentially identical.

Of course, it is all more complex than it sounds. The young ones who are sent out to do the actual killing are obliged to do so by their superiors, and usually imposed by a variety of laws. This, even in countries where it is normally illegal to kill another person and where even execution as a penalty is no longer legal. The absurdity does not end there, as it is often possible that one could be punished by marshal law for refusing to kill someone when under orders to do so; such punishment could include execution by firing squad or something equally distasteful.

Still the peculiarities of our unimaginable inability of living life with a modicum of respectability does not end there. We have devised the concept of innocent war-victims (war here referring to its widest meaning: attempted mutual destruction by two or more parties). The innocent ones are normally women, children and sometimes old men. In gang warfare, this courtesy may also be extended to non-gang member, but not always. However, the otherwise innocent young man (now also girl) of 18 or so, is guilty by by virtue of being obedient to laws established by the collective –the mothers and fathers of the nation. Do mothers and fathers not realize that by installing a government or nodding acceptance to a leader, they actually impose guiltiness on their offspring merely by identifying with a leader? In a sense, I think they do, but that this insight is hidden by a mental blind-spot called national security. By proxy they potentially impose a death sentence upon their own young, that is, unless they rise in the ranks fast enough to become part of the messengers of death – those who stop in front of the door to come and give mom and dad the news that their lad has been killed or has gone missing in action. Tears are spilled, the enemy hated with greater vigour for their association with the devil.

But then we have done our duty as good, upright, and obedient citizens.