"Of every one hundred men in battle, ten should not even be there. Eighty, are nothing but targets. Nine are the real fighters, we are lucky to have them since they make the battle. Ah, but the one -- one is the Warrior-- and he brings the others home." -- Commonly attributed to Heracletus, 500 BC (likely apocryphal)

War is both an act of violence and a clash of opposing wills. As such, it is a unique human endeavor. What makes war different and distinct from any other activity is the purposeful use of combat, destruction, and killing to compel an enemy to do our will. The use of force--and the passions violence inevitably engenders--are inherent in the very nature of war, shaping its character and conduct.

Human factors--both physiological and psychological--predominate in war. Combat is waged against a living, thinking enemy who often acts or reacts unexpectedly. Human fallibilities and emotions--generated and magnified by chaos, uncertainty, fatigue, danger, stress, and fear--create a unique environment, in which the best--and, often, the worst--in mankind come into play. Five thousand years of recorded history, reaching back to the Bible and the Iliad, validate these eternal truths about the nature of war and manifest its profound impact on both the warriors who wage it and the society that sends them to fight in its name.

TOPIC 1: THE REALITIES OF COMBAT: MYTHS, PRECONCEPTIONS AND ACTUAL EXPERIENCE

The only way you can understand the truth about killing an enemy in combat is by killing an enemy in combat. -- Miyamoto Musashi, the Book of Five Rings, 1643

How men react to the experience of battle is a product of their mental state and preparation. Repeated exposure to combat increases chances of survival due to a learning curvestudies of aerial combat done during Vietnam indicated that after 10 missions, the chances of living through a combat tour were greatly enhanced. But what about that first taste of battle? The mind of the neophyte warrior wrestles with the possibilities ...what may happen? What will things look like, sound like? How will I perform? These questions are considered in the context of a man's notions of battle: what the battlefield will be like, where enemy and friendly forces will be, and how they will look.

Pre-conceptions of battle are formed in training, in literature, in movies, in TV. The closer reality conforms to expectations the better, because the warrior may be better able to act and react more quickly and effectively than one who is surprised or shocked by a reality that is far removed from expectations.

TOPIC 2: AN ENVIRONMENT OF FEAR AND UNCERTAINTY

I'll tell you in two words what the battle was: Murder and fear, murder and fear. I know I'll never be the same person again. All the things that used to bother me are so small and silly. I know what life is worth, now that I've seen so much death -- Israeli paratrooper, 1967

The field of battle is a field of adversity. Man is at odds with the environment as he tries to come to grips with the enemy. Exposure to harsh physical conditionsfatigue, heat, cold, hunger sap the strength and wears at the resolve of the warrior. Physical conditions, however, are not the only, or even the greatest, challenge to overcome.

The uncertainty inherent on the battlefielduncertainty of one's own forces, the enemy, and the environment affects the judgment of the warrior, inhibiting clear thinking and detached analysis, possibly even paralyzing the decision-maker. The disorder and chaos of a battlefield challenge one's ability to process events and sort out what is really happening. Time marches on relentlessly, and there's no way to take a time out. The exhaustion, disorder, chaos, and uncertainty feed the kernel of fear that may range from a healthy respect for the unknown to a gripping terror that leads one to flee in horror.

TOPIC 3: KILLING AND TABOOS

Kindhearted people might, of course, think there is some ingenious way to disarm or defeat an enemy without too much bloodshed and might imagine this is the true goal of war. Pleasant as it sounds, it is a fallacy that must be exposed. War is such a dangerous business that the mistakes that come from kindness are the very worst. -- Carl von Clausewitz

Taking another person's life does not come naturally. Some argue that a basic human instinct must be overcome within the warrior to kill another human being. This resistance to killing decreases as the distance between killer and victim increases. Distance can be physical (standoff range), cultural (fighting across racial or cultural divides), or emotional (servicing targets).

General S.L.A. Marshall noted reluctance of US infantrymen to fire in battle during WWII, attributing this reluctance to the natural resistance to killing. Marshall had a profound effect on US Army training in order to overcome this reluctance. In recent years, a generation of historians has debated the validity of Marshall's research and conclusions. Whether, and if these taboos affect generation kill is the subject of our discussion today.

TOPIC 4: PASSION UNCHECKED: THE DARK SIDE

When you're wounded and left on Afghanistan's plains,And the women come out to cut up what remains, Jest roll to your rifle and blow out your brains An'go to your Gawd like a soldier. -- Rudyard Kipling, 1879
The war against the Soviet Union will be such that it cannot be conducted in a knightly fashion; The struggle is one of ideologies and racial differences and will have to be conducted with unprecedented, unmerciful, and unrelenting harshness. --Adolph Hitler
It isn't easy to kill a man in cold bloodunless one is entirely heartless or, as I was, numb with fear -- Guy Sajer, The Forgotten Soldier
May God grant us victory because if they get their revenge, we're in for a hard time --Anonymous German Soldier

War inevitably involves killing. In peacetime, taking a person's life is proscribed by societal taboos and laws. In battle, warriors are sanctioned to take lives within tightly controlled limits including the just war tradition, the laws of armed conflict, the rules of engagement, and other imposed restrictions.

When limits are violated, disciplined units take action against their own members to limit violence to what is permissible. The violent emotions unlocked by war, however, can violate the boundaries intended to limit violence. The chaos and disorder inherent to a battlefield give an opportunity to exceed the boundaries of what is permitted outside the observation of one's unit, or one's superiors. A unit may be collectively subject to strong emotions, discipline may break down and unit members may tolerate unjustified violence.

Atrocity may also spring from a rational decision; a matter of convenience, for example, may be for a unit to kill prisoners to avoid being saddled with responsibilities of caring for them.

At a higher level, commanders may demand unlawful violence (from "take no prisoners" to ordering genocide), creating major moral dilemmas for subordinates. Higher still, a significant complication is the lack of universally accepted standards, as one side's interpretation of what is allowable is unlikely to match those of the adversarythese norms may vary as the balance of power tips, or the desperation of the situation grows.