Is there honour in war/conflict?

Question

My understanding is that honour in war is mainly a historic relic, or recruitment propaganda.Though having no experience with warfare myself, I can&rsquo;t help but think perhaps there are far broader emotional and spiritual experiences to be had in such extreme circumstances.

simonblack · Accepted Answer

There is no honor in war. It's a dirty, nasty, painful business that leaves even the 'winners' as badly-damaged people.
Unfortunately, the world's leaders become more and more ignorant of that fact the longer a period of 'peace' lasts.
Most people in the world today have no personal knowledge of war, so they aren't too fussed when somebody says 'Let's go to war with '.
That's why really bad wars seem to break out every 100 years or so. All the guys who have personal knowledge of how bad wars really are have died out, leaving the 'gung-ho' ones to start the next major conflict.
We're coming up to the next really big one 'Real Soon Now'. If you're under about 40, you'd better start getting fit, and don't neglect to make out your Will.

n4r9 · Answer

There's honour in doing something that you truly think is right despite it being difficult, scary or miserable. Many people who go to war are psychologically scarred for a very long time.