Soldiers on modern military missions – how to reconcile ethics with the “need to kill”?

Abstract

Major Grzegorz Kaliciak, a participant in the Iraqi mission, noted: “One movement of the hand that put an ends to someone’s life is at the same time the beginning of another battle - against oneself”. Henryk Sienkiewicz with a passion of a man of letters observed that the “war matches people with death”. This is not about admiration for those who fight, but about the fundamental question of whether and to what extent military service prepares a soldier for killing. This question arises from On Killing by Dave Grossman. Whoever has worn a soldier’s uniform and not been confronted with the necessity to kill can repeat after General Janusz Bronowicz that the book in question makes one realize “how exceptionally gently fate has dealt with me and soldiers of my age, sparing us everything that involves slaughter in combat”. Colonel Marian Porwit mentioned the need to “study the soldier in action”; it is a necessity especially in the context of the increasing talk about the “new great soldier”, one to be dehumanized by “improving”.