Is War really Hell, or is it worse?

I have been to war, too many times, and I have not been to hell, so I can't really opine.

It takes a very unique human being to walk away from war mentally unscathed. It is likely that uniqueness was present long before they went to war. It is the next biggest price we pay next to death for our country/beliefs. Majority of Soldiers fail to understand exactly what their job entails until they deploy and actually do it, call it de-sensitizing or whatever you like but, it is a reality hidden with promises of college money, skill training, "adventure" and travel.

As far as hell goes, I will answer that when I get there.

I fought alongside many of our countries greatest Soldiers and Marines that lost their lives way too early in combat operations. Many of the survivors remained right there in the fight even though we had left the "hostile fire" area....several have committed suicide which I believe is because they could no longer deal with the painful memories and thoughts of those combat operations.

Death is said oneside we kill our enemy and I like think they deserve it. However I truly feel sad that some has too die. I never celebrate the death of another. The death of Saddam and Bin Laden weren't a call for celebration. Some may argue weather their death was warranted but that is not what I am saying. I would have shot them if ROE said I could and if I had the chance. As for celebrating their death I would not have. The matter of guilt is justice but death in all case is a said fact of life and in some cases absolutely necessary. War is where we come face to face with this necessity, combined with the fact good people will die war sucks.

However, I felt a desire to fight and will do so at the drop of a hate. I am no longer afraid of death but I love life. I am filled with an internal conflict that is between justice and death. I see it as burden of service. War is a paradox. But one thing is clear if someone tries to kill me or my comrades, I will move through proceeded by aweful death and destruction and I will love every minute of it. Strange and I will never be "normal" but maybe I never was.

I'm not a combat vet so I'm not answering with any thought that I know what I'm talking about, but the logic of the MASH quote seems pretty sound to me.

And since MASH was brought up, listen to the words for the theme song and you can probably see the connection between the Servicemember and suicide. It may be the way that some of us deal with the hell that comes from war.

Clearly there are things that are worse than war. As I mentioned on another post, there are people in this medium who have been taken captive, tortured and worse. Consider the case of the guy who held three women captive in his house for decades. That wasn't war, but it sure was hell.

It is interesting to see that UAV pilots have PTSD from doing BDA. That is not something I would have thought of, but I can see it.

War certainly takes away innocence. Further, the more times one is deployed down range, and the more violence one experiences, the more acclimated to it. We can see folks with one tour suffering far worse PTSD than folks with 8 tours.

Every human responds differently to the stimuli from the hormones created in the pituitary and other endocrine organs. At a biological level, this informs the emotional responses people have. As noted by Charles Hoge (Col MC USA Ret) in his book Once a Warrior Always a Warrior, http://amzn.to/1LYUp7I the same adrenaline responses that keep you alive in combat cause you to become sick on returning home.

The human mind has a great capacity for good and a great capacity for evil. In Jewish theology this battle between the "good inclination" and the "evil inclination" keeps us alive. Without the evil inclination, our tradition teaches that we wouldn't start a business, have children, etc.

What makes us human, in the end, then, is our ability to harness our evil inclination and use it for good. Sadly, far too many people in history have not learned how to do that.

Jewish tradition teaches "Who is a mighty person? One who conquers his/her evil inclination."

I wish everyone on this planet success towards that goal...

1LT Sandy Annala CH (CPT) Heather Davis

By true definition, war as we know it is nothing compared to hell. Speaking as a Christian and not a soldier, i will take war anyday! :)

Great quote.

War is a pretty good example of the Trilema wrongly attributed to Epicurus (and actually appearing in writing first in a work by Sextus Empiricus):

Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able?
Then he is not omnipotent.
Is he able, but not willing?
Then he is malevolent.
Is he both able and willing?
Then whence cometh evil?
Is he neither able nor willing?
Then why call him God?

How about all of the above? War is one of the worst concepts ever conceived of, hell doesn't exist, war shouldn't exist, and we definitely need to do a better job of assessing what is worth the loss of innocence.