This Essay Discusses the Question of Ethics when It Pertains to Taking Part in a War

Turning this question around in my mind, trying to think of it in a critical manner, and researching others' thoughts on the matter, I have concluded that there cannot be a true and valid answer to this question.
To take part in a war in which you will be in battle leads to killing, violence, the end of life. To take life, I believe that you must make the subject subhuman. In saying this, I mean that human beings are unable to kill just anyone. Now there are exceptions in that people with certain psychological problems may find it easier than others to kill. In this conversation, I am excluding those individuals as they are the exception. Normal minded human beings cannot take human life under normal circumstances. They must view the subject in a manner that is subhuman. In Vietnam, the term "gook" was popular. In portraying these people as something other than human, it is easier to kill them. No longer are they people, cousins, fathers, sons, mothers; now they are only the "gooks." …