There is the guilt all soldiers feel for having broken the taboo against killing, a guilt as old … - Philip Caputo

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In these difficult times, when tough decisions are required, the differences between Labour and the Tories are becoming much clearer. One party believes in intervention to reduce social and economic costs and the other believes in market forces and letting things take their course.

Philip Caputo

There is the guilt all soldiers feel for having broken the taboo against killing, a guilt as old as war itself. Add to this the soldier's sense of shame for having fought in actions that resulted, indirectly or directly, in the deaths of civilians. Then pile on top of that an attitude of social opprobrium, an attitude that made the fighting man feel personally morally responsible for the war, and you get your proverbial walking time bomb.

Attitude, Deaths, Having, Military, Opprobrium, War

Same Author Quotes

War, the ordinary man's most convenient means of escaping from the ordinary.

Convenient, Marine, Mean, Ordinary, War

Belief is a virus, and once it gets into you, its first order of business is to preserve itself, and the way it preserves itself is to keep you from having any doubts, and the way it keeps you from doubting is to blind you to the way things really are. Evidence contrary to the belief can be staring you straight in the face, and you won't see it. . . True believers just don't see things the way they are, because if they did, they wouldn't be true believers anymore.

Believers, Doubt, Face, Faces, Order, Preserve

In a guerrilla war, the line between legitimate and illegitimate killing is blurred. The policies of free-fire zones, in which a soldier is permitted to shoot at any human target, armed or unarmed, further confuse the fighting man's moral senses.

Fighting, Men, Shoot, Target, War

You're going to learn that one of the most brutal things in the world is your average nineteen-year-old American boy.

Boys, Average, Years, Boy, Learn

Being a correspondent at the Vietnam war for me was about exposing myself to danger but it wasn't completely self-serving. I felt that there were these dark places of the earth, were dark things were happening and people should know about them. Call it my moral obligation to go and see them and report them.

War, Dark, People, Obligation, Call