Dearest Rachel –
When one thinks of things one would be willing to sacrifice one’s life for, thoughts tend to run toward the things one loves. If there is to be anything worth dying for, it would be (ironically) the things that make life worth living. Possessions rarely fall into that category, although some things may be considered to be of such priceless value that to be without them might make life no longer worth living (however hyperbolic that might be upon sober contemplation, rather than in the heat of the moment). Loved ones naturally qualify; although we seem to be devolving into a country that is sorely lacking in those (or at least, in the ability to consider ourselves as having any ‘loved ones’ we deem worth saving above our own skin). And speaking of our country, there is that as well; indeed, we have whole professional classes of people whose job it is to devote themselves to, in one way or another, the preservation and promotion of our nation above others. And if this involves the surrender of one’s one life, so be it.
I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country.
Nathan Hale
Of course, not everyone agreed with Hale’s noble-sounding sentiments toward his service to his country.
No[body] ever won a war by dying for his country. He won it by making some other poor dumb [fellow] die for his country.
General George Patton, as quoted in the eponymous 1970 movie (bowdlerized, obviously)
This is probably true enough; but regardless, the soldier’s lot does in fact run the risk of dying for one’s country much more so than other professions. It is generally why we as a country tend to honor those who served in such a dangerous capacity, particularly in times of actual shooting wars – which seem to be fairly constant throughout our history; there is always one or another conflict across the globe we find ourselves sticking our nose in (often to get it tweaked these days) or even straight-up intervening in, whether it’s in our best interests or not.
Setting aside that argument (since, in the long run, as you know, it doesn’t really matter), there is the other part of the soldier’s job. While the Bible (in particular, the Old Testament, with the children of Israel starting out as the literal scourge of God upon the Canaanites) involves a lot of military activity, including such otherwise nefarious activities as espionage and outright treason (see Jehu of Israel, or Jehoiada the high priest and the plot against Queen Athalia), this was essentially sanctioned by the Lord Almighty Himself. the lying, the looting and the killing were in His service, and that made it different than your typical violation of the Commandments.
Not so in this day and age. There is no country these days that is so righteous that every skullduggery on its behalf could be considered justified. Even the current nation of Israel is subject to internal strife as to what limits to put on the lengths they can go to in order to defend themselves against a foe among them that seems unable or unwilling to settle for half a loaf. And let’s not even start on America, which, we are now told, is apparently the source of all of the world’s evil, despite most of the decried evils thus enumerated among our many sins – racism, sexism, authoritarianism, you name it, we’re evidently the wellspring of it all – dating back to before our existence. How can one justify lying, cheating, stealing or killing for such a country – imperiling one’s soul (setting aside the fact that no one is worthy of heaven in the first place; it could easily be argued that the more accustomed one becomes to the evil they feel they ‘must’ do, the farther away from saving grace they will find themselves at all) for such an unworthy cause as our nation?!
And yet, it is done, and done often. Indeed, we find ourselves forced to admit that such morally questionable activities are practically necessary in order to maintain peace without, and order within, any civilized nation.
People sleep peacefully in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf.
attributed to George Orwell
Those rough men all but forfeit their souls for the sake of our collective peace. It seems a raw bargain on their part, if you ask me, but what can you do when chaos and anarchy (and consequently, that many more souls lost to them) is the alternative?
Letters to Rachel 