Why did the soldiers want to go to war if they knew they would have got hurt or killed?

Answer 1

Why, indeed? An excellent question! I think the answer may be very complex.

When I saw your question I instantly got a mental picture of the early movies from the beginning of World War 1, with the soldiers of all the belligerent nations happily marching through the streets of the towns and the cities, waving to the cheering crowds, accepting bunches of flowers from pretty girls, even kissing them … you may know the scene. Viewed today, those movies are almost humorous, since the cameras of the time were hand cranked a little slowly so that when they movie was projected the action seemed speeded up, and the jerky motions give the whole scene a little silliness that makes one want to laugh. It looks as if not one single person anywhere is thinking about anyone getting hurt or killed.

Soldiers in almost every war, ever, have probably gone off to a sendoff like that of WW1. We know they did it on both sides in the American Civil War. We don't have movies, but we have lots of drawings of the huge parades on both sides as young men went off to die by the tens of thousands. Both in WW1 and the Civil War, all sides honestly seemed to believe it would be a short war and a happy one, and of course, Our Side Will Win.

Yet as silly as those old movies of the First Great War seem now, there was nothing silly about what happened after the young soldiers marched to the front and started shooting at each other for four years.

In World War 2 there were also send off parades on many occasions, although there was less of it than in World War 1 because the Germans attacked Poland without warning and the Japanese attacked the U.S. without warning. You don't have a send off parade for a sneak attack.

But I tend to run on, don't I? So why did they do it? You asked, "Why did the soldiers want to go to war if they knew they would have got hurt or killed?" I think there are a lot of possible answers, but one is that they were, in fact, young. Warriors are usually young. They have to be to withstand the hardships of war. And young people often don't even think about getting hurt or killed. Look at your newspaper. Almost every day there will be a story of some little group of teens hurt or killed in a car accident, often with alcohol involved, even though everyone knows that driving drunk can kill you. But the teens weren't thinking when they got in the car, "I could get hurt or killed." They were thinking, "This is fun."

For many young soldiers in many wars, the idea of getting hurt or killed is pushed to the back of their mind. Getting hurt or killed happens to the other fellow. And war has been described as a violent extension of politics. The politicians who help start the wars fire up the troops with speeches of patriotic fervor. Our cause is right! Going off to war to fight for the Fatherland or the Motherland or The Flag is exciting, an adventure, something completely new and wonderfully different and maybe even glorious. We get to wear a cool uniform and carry a rifle and we get to march to oom-pahing bands playing high stepping marches. I might return a hero with a medal! Then there are all those girls with the flowers, and the kisses, and the young soldiers aren't thinking at all about getting hurt or killed.

Yet.

I strongly suspect World War 1 was the last war when men marched off happily to one of the most horrible experiences the world has ever seen (dwarfed only by its successor a generation later). There hadn't been a major war in Europe since 1871. The soldiers going into it weren't thinking about what technologic changes had taken place in the intervening years. The artillery was MUCH bigger. There were flame throwers and poison gas. There were machine guns. Yet I think most soldiers on all sides in August of 1914 were seriously convinced they'd be home by Christmas (victorious of course). So they went marching happily into the maw of Death thinking that, if anyone got hurt or killed, it probably wouldn't be too bad, and it would be the other fellow anyway.

The lessons learned in World War 1 were learned well enough that by World War 2 that there was a little less cheering, fewer flowers, more grimness. The soldiers on all sides of World War 2 had a much better idea what they were getting into since their fathers had fought World War 1.

And what about now? Do you think our young soldiers don't think about getting hurt or killed in Iraq or Afghanistan? I think they do. They seem to understand very clearly the consequences of fighting since they get hurt or killed every day, but they are very dedicated to their cause, whether we agree with it or not. Our soldiers are very dedicated to each other. Soldiers on battlefields usually reach a point where it's not about politics or flags or home or mother or apple pie, but it's about your buddies and taking care of each other. The fellows on the other side are fired up with a religious fervor. Them I'm not so sure about.

But I am sure our modern soldiers are not as naive as the soldiers of 1860 and 1914. They know exactly what they're getting into and they do it because it's their job, and they're very dedicated, especially to each other. And there is the stark fact that we were deliberately and viciously attacked in our own country on September 11, 2001. When we went into Afghanistan, I for one think we had just cause since the Taliban government of Afghanistan was giving safe haven to Al Qa'eda, who attacked us. The Iraq question is a story for another essay, one I won't write now.

Answer 2

they wanted to protect there country and wanted there family to have a great life!