This says a lot about the people in whom it inspires outrage

Snopes reports on a rumor going around that the military is now handing out "Courageous Restraint" medals to honor those who bravely avoid firing their weapon in situations in which they feel threatened, thus defusing the situation and saving lives. It's not true -- the proposal was considered but ultimately nixed, and as much as I like the idea, I can see it would have some serious implementation problems. But the outrage in the viral e-mail is just shocking:

The greatest insult to our troops in the field, and the officers who lead them...

Excuse me? The idea of awarding soldiers for not murdering civilians is an "insult" to them?!? What kind of sick sadistic fuck is this person, that he or she would write such a violent thing???

Taken to its logical conclusion, this would imply that "our troops in the field, and the officers who lead them" take great pride in the unnecessary and/or cowardly slaughter of civilians -- after all, if they didn't take pride in it, how would honoring the avoidance of such actions be an "insult"?

The greatest insult of all is from the author of this sick twisted e-mail, who implies that the highest aspiration for a soldier is to be frightened into pulling the trigger on an innocent person.