A recurring theme that keeps cropping up in my conversations with A is the considerable brain-washing that we believe is necessary for any one to put their life on the line in a war for a concept as nebulous as a nation. Yes, we all love our country to varying degrees but to sacrifice your life to save the idea of a nation requires a level of conviction unfathomable to me. One answer of course would be that the motivation is not the perception of a nation but the more tangible life of a fellow countryman's life.And perhaps it is so.

Is killing in a war universally acknowledged as morally acceptable? Here's one approach to answering why its deemed not-so-bad. Form your own conclusions.

This train of thought reminded me of a poem by Thomas Hardy that was part of the CBSE syllabus:

Had he and I but met
By some old ancient inn,
We should have set us down to wet
Right many a nipperkin!

But ranged as infantry,
And staring face to face,
I shot at him as he at me,
And killed him in his place.

I shot him dead because--
Because he was my foe,
Just so: my foe of course he was;
That's clear enough; although

He thought he'd 'list, perhaps,
Off-hand like--just as I--
Was out of work--had sold his traps--
No other reason why.

Yes; quaint and curious war is!
You shoot a fellow down
You'd treat, if met where any bar is,
Or help to half a crown.

For the record, I think Hardy's prose is insufferably morose.