Most soldiers do not “kill,” instead the enemy was knocked over, wasted, greased, taken out, and mopped up. The enemy is hosed, zapped, probed, and fired on. The enemy’s humanity is denied, and he becomes a strange beast called a Kraut, Jap, Reb, Yank, dink, slant, slope, or raghead. Even the weapons of war receive benign names—Puff the Magic Dragon, Walleye, TOW, Fat Boy, and Thin Man—and the killing weapon of the individual soldier becomes a piece or a hog, and a bullet becomes a round.
