Run Away Fear

Action Identification.

Spc. Cliff Cornell spent four years in Canada, after having deserted the army in order to avoid being deployed for Iraq. The 28-year-old soldier tearfully apologized as he was sent to one year in prison for desertion.

His reason for hiding out? He fled in 2005 because he feared for his own life and could not stomach the thought of killing another. For many people in the military, in order to cope with the ultimate task of killing human beings, the brain shifts to focusing on lower levels of action identification.

Almost any action can be described at various levels of meaning. Low level goals are concrete with here-and-now concerns that motivate current behavior. High level goals are more abstract and have long-term implications. These higher levels of action identification are more emotional and so the shift to lower levels helps to avoid negative emotions. Lower levels of action identification help solve problems. At lower levels, we are capable of shielding ourselves from the threatening nature of our behavior.

For soldiers in war, they often focus on these lower levels of action identification to complete their given tasks in order to avoid the negative implications produced at higher levels. In the military, soldiers will train to operate on a lower level of action identification, focusing on step by step instructions such as releasing the safety valves, putting a finger on a trigger, or focusing their sight on a target to keep them from thinking about the ultimate objective—to kill another human being.

For Spc. Cliff Cornell, he was unable to think on this lower level of action identification as he was overwhelmingly focused on the higher level implications of behavior. While his attorney claims that Cornell does not have the same emotional or social skills of other people (which is why he had this initial fear of war), it looks like he will not have much opportunity to develop them during his year in jail. 

Performing tasks at lower levels of action identification make the possibility of performing otherwise conscientiously challenging tasks acceptable and more doable.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090428/ap_on_re_us/us_war_resister;_ylt=AqGdnDEXRfcbphMdwvooNmBvzwcF