Pre-Deployment Mindfulness Retreats Now Mandatory for All Combat Units; First Battalion Reports 'Existential Dread During Enemy Contact'
Every soldier deployed to the front lines must now complete a 48-hour mindfulness retreat before entering active combat. The initiative comes after three battalions reported “cognitive dissonance during enemy engagements.”
“Soldiers have been told they cannot fire their weapons unless they first scan their moral alignment with the current enemy,” says Major Marcus Henderson, a veteran of the Afghanistan deployment, who now spends his mornings reading inspirational texts before firing his rifle. “I’m supposed to visualize my enemy as a ‘complex human being with unmet needs.’ I tried it with Taliban fighters. My rifle jammed.”