The varying psychological impacts perhaps are conditioned on the nature of the different "battle field" environments. In WW II, the soldier knew exactly who friend and foe were. If he was dropped into France, he knew the native French were friends. When he migrated into Germany, he knew the Germans were foes. He had clarity and adjusted his behavior accordingly. Like it or not, the Israelis treat all non-Jewish residents as enemies. Dehumanizing them makes it easy to sleep at night.

It's when a US combatant is dropped into a sea of violent ambiguity that the psychological problems arise. A French kid in WW II would never walk up to a soldier and try to kill him. An Iraqi kid might. In Iraqi (and Afghanistan). The entire native populations are concurrently enemies and friends.

Tasking young people primarily trained to kill to be both friend and enemy when there are not clear distinctions of which is which on the other side invites psychological trauma for sure. First because the soldier has experiences of his own comrades killed by enemy Iraqis taken for "friends" and second by the killing of Iraqi "friends" by US forces mistaken as enemies.

What a mess...

I believe you made me see my own myth making concerning my vulnerabilities, which has been one of your many gifts to me,and hence i am more mentally and intellectually prepared.-Speaking of the holocaust. A great book suggestion for those reading this blog, Viktor Frankl's book- MANS SEARCH FOR MEANING- is a classic,despite his ''logo therapy'' which contributed nothing in my opinion. -Peter i see you wrote the foreword to THE ART OF LOVING, very cool.With a handshake in thought, David