"Combat was a game the United States asked Second Platoon to become very good at... Society can give its young men almost any job... They'll suffer for it and die for it, but in the end, it will get done. Soldiers themselves are reluctant to evaluate the costs or war (for some reason, the closer you are to combat the less inclined you are to question it), but someone must. That evaluation, unadulterated by politics, may be the one thing a country owes its soldiers. One American soldier has died for every hundred yards of forward progress in the valley, but what about the survivors? Is that territory worth the psychological cost of learning to cheer at one's death? As for a sense of purpose, combat is it... Almost none of the things that make life feel worth living back home are present at Restrepo, so the entire range of a young man's self worth has to be found within a firefight. The men dream about it.... some of the men worry they'll never be satisfied with a 'normal life' -whatever that is- after the amount of combat they've been in."
Right after this passage O'Byrne goes on to admit "I like the firefights... I know, saddest thing in the world."
What makes men enjoy firefights? Well like the passage states, its the only thing that really ever happens to soldiers once their out there. Their actions in a firefight give them a sense of self worth they might other wise lose.
This passage contains an interesting idea, what I believe to be a main point of the entire book. The fact that the closer the soldier are to fighting in the war, the less they think about the political parts of the war. To them, every firefight is a struggle for survival and chance to prove one's worth. When your life is on the line, things like political goals seem way less important. In fact, this is probably why soldiers don't even think about those at all. Outside the war it's easy to have a political view on what you want to achieve. However, the soldiers are surrounded by the consequences and therefore all the political views come into question. The firefights become a game for them, and if they survive and kill the enemy they win. Then, when they consider all the American blood around them, no matter how much enemy blood there is, it starts to feel like a loss. That's how Junger portrays the soldiers thoughts. To them it comes down to life, death, and character. To everyone back home, it's about land and driving the enemy out. The sacrifices made to achieve this are intangible to them and therefore they are worth it. Besides for all the death, the surviving soldiers also have to way out the benefits or war with the costs of their psychological well being. As stated in the passage, "they'll never be satisfied with a 'normal life'," shows how many of the soldiers have ruined their chances at living a normal life back home.
"Once that first bullet goes past your head, politics and all that shit just goes right out the window."
~Black Hawk Down (2001)
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