They insulted us when I was in, but it was UNDERSTOOD that it wasn't personal. This was what Drill Sergeants did. Either I knew their insult was baseless or I knew it was truth, like when they went off because I couldn't do 10 military push-ups.
Does it serve a purpose? Insulting? I don't think so. But you're a ticked-off Drill Sergeant. Are you expected to speak like a schoolteacher?
There is specific training for being a P.o.W. No need to focus on that in Basic Training.
I watched "Delta Farce" the other week. The Sergeant's insults made me laugh. It's like a military inside-joke.
Beating takes place in the IDF special forces, I hear. Supposedly to train them to focus while they're taking hits in their body armor.
Personally, I think there's a war against war going on and the poverty-level young men and women being recruited are the ones who are paying the price for taking up arms.
First they make sure we're poor and uneducated, then they punish us for trying to advance ourselves in the military.