As far as I am concerned, there is nothing moral about war, the idea about some "high moral ground" is a crock of crap. I was born after my father returned from 2 years in the south pacific in the Pacific , the last big operation he was in was Okinawa, and he was in the navy on an LST and on LCI's. He did not talk much about things, unless he was drunk or having one of his spells with malaria and fever. What he taught me a bout war and fighting was this: you do NOT fight unless it is absolutely necessary, not for pride or power or fun, you fight for survival. If you MUST fight, you hit them first, hit them hard, hit them continuously, hit them until there is nothing left that can threaten you further, and then get the hell away from them.
While listening to him talk to his brothers who were over there also, I overheard him talking of seeing camps on Islands where there were flowerbeds surrounded by human skulls instead of stones, of lampshades of leather made from human skin, and how they emptied truck loads of diesel fuel into caves on Okinawa, full of Japanese soldiers and civilians alike, with women and children, then hitting them with flame throwers and then shoved them shut with dozers, of picking up survivors on the front of the ship for pictures and then throwing them off the back of the ship. There was no therapy, no support, no PTSD diagnosis, there was just thank GOD we won, it is over, go home. He still had nightmares in the early '60s occasionally. This treating war like some video game is some sick crap. The only people who can just turn it on and off on command are sociopaths.
