Military Morality

The opening contains a point worth discussing first: changing a normal person into a soldier requires ripping out the original moral framework and replacing it with something else. This allows the soldier to kill other human beings without hesitation, to continue fighting even while substantially damaged, and otherwise do all sorts of things that normal people can't or won't do -- which is necessary if the soldier is to live and the war is to be won.

I was just discussing this with someone a couple days ago. You can't tell a normal person, "I need you to run up that hill and try not to get shot (though you probably will be). That hill is important, more important than you are," and expect him or her to do it.

There was a situation in which I was separated from my unit, and they were pinned down by an enemy MG emplacement. I was in a position to approach undetected, but I was also out of ammo - all I had were a couple of rounds in my sidearm, and my knives.

My thought process wasn't, "Oh shit, I'm gonna die now," or even "We're all gonna die here." I was calculating how many of them I could take out before they killed me.

I fully expected to be dead or severely wounded by the time I was done, but I knew that I could free up my unit enough that they could finish the job.

Obviously, I didn't get killed (barely even got scratched). After my assault, we rolled up their line from that point, and then we ate their hot food that had been cooking. None of that is normal, but to us, it was just another day.

But who, if he be called upon to face
Some awful moment to which Heaven has joined
Great issues, good or bad for human kind,
Is happy as a Lover; and attired
With sudden brightness, like a Man inspired;
And, through the heat of conflict, keeps the law
In calmness made, and sees what he foresaw:
Or if an unexpected call succeed,
Come when it will, is equal to the need:
—He who, though thus endued as with a sense
And faculty for storm and turbulence,
Is yet a Soul whose master-bias leans
To homefelt pleasures and to gentle scenes;
Sweet images! which, whereso’er he be,
Are at his heart; and such fidelity
It is his darling passion to approve;
More brave for this, that he hath much to love:—
’Tis, finally, the Man, who, lifted high,
Conspicuous object in a Nation’s eye,
Or left unthought-of in obscurity,—
Who, with a toward or untoward lot,
Prosperous or adverse, to his wish or not,
Plays, in the many games of life, that one
Where what he most doth value must be won.
Whom neither shape of danger can dismay,
Nor thought of tender happiness betray;
Who, not content that former worth stand fast,
Looks forward, persevering to the last,
From well to better, daily self-surpast:
Who, whether praise of him must walk the earth
For ever, and to noble deeds give birth,
Or he must fall to sleep without his fame,
And leave a dead unprofitable name,
Finds comfort in himself and in his cause;
And, while the mortal mist is gathering, draws
His breath in confidence of Heaven’s applause:
This is the happy Warrior; this is he
Whom every Man in arms should wish to be.
-- from Character of the Happy Warrior, William Wordsworth

Yes, Society has a large portion of the blame, because people *know* what soldiers do, but they think it's OK so long as it's being done for *our* side.