Bullying... Again

Good grief, not again.

The Army has begun an investigation into the training of young recruits after the BBC obtained video footage.

Amateur film by a soldier at the Army's School of Infantry in Catterick last year appears to show a soldier putting his boot on a recruit's neck.

Anti-bullying campaigner Lynn Farr said the "fine line" between discipline and abuse is "crossed over far too much".

Last month the MoD accepted there had to be a complete change of culture in the training of recruits.

It followed a House of Commons committee report which criticised the MoD for failing in its "duty of care" towards young soldiers.

If you're not mentally tough enough to survive some tough situations in the military without freaking out, then you shouldn't join the military. There's hazing and bullying in the U.S. Navy on a near-daily basis, it's called the Crossing the Line ceremony. It's been toned down a bit in recent years, but pretty much everyone still goes through it. Is it bullying? Yes. Should professional soldiers be able to tough it out? Yes. Should they be prepared, particularly if they're infantry soldiers, for capture? Yes. Is anything they encounter from real terrorists and enemies going to be a hundred times worse than having a boot put on your neck?

You better damn well believe it.

I can also guarantee you one thing: Lynn Farr hasn't served in the military.

It's incidents like this that show you why many of the military assets in Europe are near-dysfunctional. Would you want to go to war with someone who couldn't handle a bit of rough handling? I should hope not, and neither would I.