In combat you are already over some edge. You are in a fierce state where there is a primitive and savage joy in doing in your enemy.
I have never been in combat. But I recall the joy of shooting my rifle for the first time; the rush of attacking an imaginary enemy with a thumping CV-90 auto-cannon on my right; the grin on my face as my platoon fired a Javelin missile at a heap of discarded metal. It comes nowhere close to the intense experience of those who fought, died, and survived a war, but I recognize in myself the capacity for brutal violence.
