The Guardian reports (2/08/2013) that in 2012 more of America’s serving soldiers died at their own hands than in pursuit of the enemy. 349 service members took their own lives, and 295 died in combat. Psychiatrists use the concept of “moral injury” to explain this, that is, “damage to your deeply held beliefs about right and wrong”. Psychological damage is caused by guilt related to moral injury, failure to protect fellow soldiers, so-called “friendly fire”, and the deaths of innocent women and children. Those who are discharged experience a devastating sense of loss, and many are badly treated, lose their wives and families and become homeless.

The hard-right neocons and the loud-mouthed nationalists have a lot to answer for, sending young men into war situations where so many are bound to fail. For all the huge military apparatus, the US has lost most of its wars since the Second World War because it cannot cope with guerrilla operations and doesn’t train it’s men for them properly. The sufferers are enlisted men and innocent civilians.

Epicurus was not a pacifist, but he was a very wise and clever man. He would not, I think, were he alive today, have invaded Iraq and Afghanistan in such thoughtless ways, devoid of historical and cultural knowledge. And still the culprits (neocons and other hangers-on) survive, unrepentant, earning large sums from those with a vested interest in war.