WAR by Sebastian Junger Part II

Farthering my thoughts on what being in a war does to someone, I came to learn about how soldiers cope with the ongoing precense of death, loss, injury, and pain. Junger asks O'Byrne, a solider stationed in the KOP, to describe his war mentality after his first few months.

"Numb," he said. "Wasn't scared, wasn't happy, just fucking numb. Kept to myself, did what I had to do. It was a very werird, detached feeling those first few months."

"You weren't scared of dying?"

"No, I was too numb. I never let my brain go there. There were these boundaries in my brain, and I just never let myself go to that spot."

It is hard to get close to someone in war when the probability of losing that person is so high. If you love someone, their loss pains you. If you detach yourself from feeling anything towards someone, it is then much easier to cope with their death. In fact, you probably don't have to cope at all. In war, when death is so normal, soldiers can either constantly grieve over the recurring losses, try and push those feelings away, or just separate themselves from it all. The easiest way to separate themseleves from it is by doing what O'Byrne talked about. Becoming numb. Denying yourself from having any feelings at all is a kind of preventative coping method soldiers like him use.
When you take all of that into consideration, the actions of the U.S. soldier in Afghanistan who killed 16 civilians becomes understandable. Not excusable or justifiable, but understandable. Combining the adrenaline from the firefights with the absence of being able to feel for other people, that soldiers actions seem a little less surprising. I mean as a soldier, America sends him over there to kill. Not only is that his job, but it's all he can do to feel any sort of masculine power or pleasure over there where there's no women or even any sort of recreational activity. Uberfacts tweeted "Shooting a gun causes the same chemical reaction in the brain as a passionate kiss." Shooting a gun becomes more than a job to many soldiers, but addictive in the sense that it makes them feel good while living pretty bad conditions. It's important to look at not just what people do, no matter how horrible, but why they do it. If we can understand what causes it then we can stop these problems. Unfortunately today's world requires young men to make these kinds of sacrifices, become soldiers, and accept the side effects of everything that comes with it. That's why it is important to know who you are and have a strong sense of self before putting yourself in these moral bending situations. Also it's important not to judge those who do even what seems as pure evil, because there's always an explanation. I believe Junger does the American soldiers justice in his novel by showing Americans back home the side of war they don't usually see.