Holden McGroin: Most of the guys I served with, (many more than three) just wanted to get home in one piece. The few who expressed the 'let's go kill somebody' mentality unduely exposed themselves to the enemy and usually did not last the tour.
You are confusing motivation with competence and other character traits. Incompetent people have a much greater chance of getting killed in a war whether they are murderous or not.
It is not my impression that murderous people are more lax in matters of personal safety than peace-loving people of equal competence. Those I knew would prefer and try to kill an enemy with minimum risk.
There is no general rule but a 'murderous' person is more likely to exercise his military skills and maintain his weaponry while a peace-lover spends time dreaming of home. That affects competency which in turn affects survival.
Also in many situations ''let's go kill somebody" type would be more likely to charge and/or suppres the enemy with fire rather than hide - or stick our and cover a trusted mate so that he could return favor later and those actions may be very beneficial to survival in short and long term respectively.
I am not even talking about an extreme utility of anti-social persons for certain survival-critical tasks that are almost impossible for normal people to perform even after considerable character degradation caused by war with implacable enemy, stress, lack of sleep and female company.
So your motivation was one of the desire to murder? get some counseling.
Where is this coming from? You've just admitted to exactly as much as I did - serving with and knowing 'let's go kill somebody" types. And neither of the categories you've mentioned includes a "patriot" type which I at least assume to exist if not in large numbers.
How does that make me one with "the desire to murder" as opposed to you? Just because I am on the opposite side of the argument regarding prevalence of patriots in the army, I must be a murderer? What if I were one? There is no information in my posts to indicate that I was but plenty to indicate that I was not. Starting with my present occupation.
Why don't you stop personal insults and tell me how many soldiers of those you personally knew were serving out of patriotism?
I've known none in Soviet Union and none among serving/former soldiers I know here in US. That's my experience.
I do not believe that there is a single guy serving in US army today who would think "I could succeed in business - as a lawyer or broker or businessman, etc, drive a cool car, have a great house and plenty of money, enjoy myself and not give a damn about the country like everybody I see. But no - I will reluctantly enroll so that I can guard peace and quiet and way of life of those guys so that they continue enjoying their lifes and not care about serving themselves".
People enroll in peacetime because they like the job (or what they expect it to be - which is quite different), because they cannot get anything better or for few other reasons. Patriotism is almost never one of them.
miko
