Ecstacy of War

             The main purpose of Ehnrenreich is to show that there are many causes, for which men go to war. However, he says that it is not easy to go to war, and that there is a lot of preparation, both physically and mentally, before the fighting begins. He means to show that war is no joke, and that it is very complicated. Hand to hand combat is very different from fighting from far away, because there is a lot more that goes through one's mind when you are in hand to hand. It is not easy to bayonet a man, because you are up close. Hand to hand is not only more dangerous, but much tougher. It requires a lot of psychological stability. .
             Ehenrenreich names several reasons as to why we go to war. Some of those include a need for land, wishing to expand, territorial discrepancies, a desire for power, and wanting another lands money or oil.
             Many cultures ritualize the transformation from man to warrior. For example, young Scandinavians have to become a bear, before fighting. The Irish had to distort their faces, having one eye sucked into the skull, with the other popping out of the side. Others intoxicated themselves, or used face paints.
             War cannot be emotionless and rational. Perhaps between the two generals, but not between the soldiers. Going into battles, and knowing that it could be your last, is not exactly emotionless. Also, emotions flow off the battlefield as well.
             What Kroeber and Fontana mean is that in a war, instincts are different then what biologists describe it to be. On the battlefield it is more sociological, something that one builds within, something not easily sanctioned.
             The hypothesis of the killer instinct is not wrong but irrelevant, because in a war, things change psychologically. What they may have had in mind, going into the battle, changes when they are about to get killed. It has no place at the time, because each solider must work on his own to not only survive, but win the battle.