They are doing it because its combat. because of the conflict zone they are in. I don't think most soldiers today believe they are fighting for a higher national cause, and I doubt they did in other periods of history. most soldiers are young men, once they are confronted with the realities of the army, or of conflict its hard to tell them stories.
they may be informed about the political circumstances, to some degree or the other.
I have to disagree.
Two opposing forces facing each other on a battlefield armed with clubs, swords or muskets would be fully aware of the higher cause they were fighting for. Maybe not thinking about it right at that moment, maybe some were.
I spent alot of my time as a crew chief living in a bunker waiting for a launch order, gives you alot of time to think. If we actually launched to deploy I would be going with the aircraft and my wife would be staying behind. Considering the kind of conflict it would take for us to be scrambled from Indiana, her being in the middle of the country was no comfort. I toyed with the thought of making sure the aircraft was ready to launch and then jumping the fence in the confusion and heading home, but I knew I wouldn't do that.
I was serving a higher cause than myself.
When I was in the reserves as a fire fighter I got activated during desert shield. They sent the regulars over to Quatar and we stayed behind to man the base. I was kind of miffed that we weren't sent instead, reserves usually being the first to go.
We all watched the tv constantly, knew the political situation.
I had a christian guy preaching to me one time that if I kept listening to my heavy metal music I was going to hell. I laughed and told him he was going to hell for killing people. He claimed he was killing no one and that's why he took the job as a crew chief on aerial fuel tankers as opposed to combat.
You keep that tanker ready to go. That tanker fuels up fighters and bombers that go to another place and kill lots and lots of people.
He looked at the floor and walked away, didn't talk to me after that except on the job.
