What It is Like to Go to War

by Karl Marlantes

We all want to be special, to stand out; there’s nothing wrong with this. The irony is that every human being is special to start with, because we’re unique to start with. But we then go through some sort of boot camp from the age of zero to about eighteen where we learn everything we can about how not to be unique.

The bottom of the pile is the best place to learn empathy.

Money sends kids to college, not sentiment.

Infantry platoons have medics for the body. Why not for the soul?

We are no longer limited to one tribal myth. We can choose.

Joseph Campbell has said that the new world mythologies yet to come must transcend national boundaries. So too must civilization’s use of warriors.

“No man might be flogged, imprisoned, or put to death among the Germans save by their priests, ‘in obedience to the god which they believe to preside over battle.’ If the god of battle punished criminals, then he must surely have been regarded as the supporter of order and justice.”

What all this says to us today is that it is time to return Mars to his lost connection with justice.

It behooves us to recognize the difference in order to make it clear whether troops are acting in the role of warriors or the role of police. As I said at the start of this chapter, warriors choose sides. Police cannot choose sides; they must be on the side of the law.

Warriors must always know the people they are protecting and why. They must undertake the personal responsibility for deciding when to kill and for what higher cause.