It is a 100% false “fact” that in Vietnam (or anywhere else that has been said about) that 90% of soldiers didn’t fire their weapons to kill. Or as sometimes is heard, at all.

I’ve seen this claim trotted out about WWI, WWII, Vietnam, and other conflicts. But it’s made up. It’s just deceit and delusion. I believe where this faux fact comes from is that it takes a lot of ammo downrange to kill any one hostile. Suppressive fire is most of the fire used in every modern war. By design, by the way. In the Afghanistan war, for instance, there were 250,000 rounds fired for every insurgent killed.

This absurd nonsense gets trotted out about various wars depending on what sort of ideological axe is being ground and it’s just lunacy, for a few reasons but the main one is this: when the enemy is on top of you and you’re in small arms range, you’re often fighting for your life. Even the most pacifist and wilting soldier is going to be tossing whatever they have downrange at any target they can plausibly identify.

How do people believe such goofy crap?