Fighting a faceless enemy

[remnant]

I don't know whether this is the right place for this thread but isn't it odd that soldiers on opposite sides of the battlefield go for each others jugular dispensing with each other with absolute resolve yet they never met? They could even be compatible and become the best of mutual friends. Whats more, you might realize that you have just dispatched a desperate job seeker driven to the armed forces to eke out a living in this unfair life. Do such thoughts cross the minds of combatants when there is a lull in the fighting?

 

[Susimi]

A phrase someone said to me a long time ago sums up wars pretty well.

"A war is hundreds of young guys who don't know eachother fighting eachother, for two old guys who do know eachother"

My memory of the phrase has deteriorated over the years but you get the gist of it.

There's nothing extraordinary about the guys who go to wars. They come from all walks of life and are as normal as that guy you see playing with his kid at the park, to the guy who served you last in a shop. Of course you all know this but when I think about it a lot it just saddens me a lot.

 

[John Snort]

There's this thing called protecting your own. You may not know each other but should an enemy defeat you, they aren't just defeating an army. They'll take everything you hold dear. It has been so since the beginning. That's why though enemy soldiers are strangers who could have been your friends in another lifetime are your enemies on the battlefield. Their goals whether they've achieved them yet or not, make them your enemies. You wouldn't love someone who wanted to kill your best friend or brother or sister because they believe you intend to do the same thing.