Thank you for your sincere reply.

I posted the original article many hours ago.
I don't even remember exactly when. I have been awake for too long.

Today and in general.

War is the most evil human ...human what?
Behavior? Instinct? Rationalism?


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Coming back to your inspiring post, you wrote:

" Not every soldier when faced with the obscenity of war chooses to step over the line. History is replete with the stories of those who paid the price of their lives defending the greater good of NOT stepping over the line.
The law is not there to inform the better angels among us. It is there to provide a baseline of acceptable behavior for those whose morals are not as lofty as the angels."

Do you really believe that it can stop a soldier to go too far on the dark side?

I don't.

I deeply believe that even thou those laws were created to prevent more atrocities in a war situation, they are not acting as deterrent because War is not normal life. The parameters are all askew. The unacceptable living conditions become the norm and then : Who remembers the laws?

Those laws are efficient after the fact. To punish those who lost their sense of humanity.

I never was and probably never will be on the front lines as a combatant.

So please be indulgent as I try to understand more about the behavior of individuals stocked in a hellish situation.


Lets take a group of 15 soldiers.

The weak characters, when confronted with intolerable pain,( and its not important if its coming from their side or the enemy side) will feel lost, and try everything to get rid of that overwhelming emotion.

Too much is too much.. so they say...and they will instinctively lower their human moral standard, and embraced the next acceptable code : the Forces.


Consequently, Most (9) will follow blindly their leader ( the official one or the natural one) and from that point on, their actions will have no weight on their conscience cause they silenced it. The responsibility now lies on the Other one.


The ones left (6) are sitting at both extremes, with their pain more acute than "most " cause they have a stronger sense of self. (It doesn't matter if their self image is real or just illusions.) Among those few, half or more will keep their humanity and get closer to the angels while some of their comrades will numb their pain by taking pleasure in hurting the "enemy" and/or any individuals representing that enemy.

Does it make sense?

nac