I almost always hate it when I'm right.

12th Battalion - IDF Prayer Video Dated Oct 9th, 2023

The prayer in English is translated as:
"May he who blessed our ancestors, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, bless the soldiers of the Israel Defense forces and the security personnel who stand guard over our country and the cities of our God, from the Lebanese border to the Egyptian wilderness and from the Mediterranean Sea to the edges of the desert – or wherever they might be – on land, in the air or at sea.

(It continues…) May God cause our enemies who attack us to suffer defeat at the hands of our troops. May the Holy One, may He be blessed, shield and protect them from any adversity or anguish, any ordeal or suffering, and send blessing and success to everything they do. May He bring those who hate us under their sway, and glorify our forces with the crown of salvation and the mantle of victory, so that the verse: ‘The Lord your God marches with you to do battle for you against your enemies and to save you,’ will be fulfilled through them; and let us say, Amen."

There is both a sad but incredibly beautiful side effect of organized group violence. Even when the soldiers readying for their mission are not from my country. In-groups coalesce with the absolute moral clarity needed for its common defense. Groups are at their apex of cohesion and affection when faced with an existential out-group threat. It really is one of our greatest human reactions when it is stirred for moral good, but morals vary. While I am a mechanics of violence scholar, there’s no acceptable moral framework that condones the actions of Hamas this week.

We are at our in-group best when attacked and in preparation for a fight to the death for our family, tribe, country, etc. because it's only in mortal combat that humans face their greatest test of wills. We are literally freed from any thoughts of tomorrow, we exist moment by moment; and honestly, it really is a heady steam of adrenaline and presentism, one I’m not ashamed to admit I miss daily. The only downside is all the killing.

At least 22 (as of this morning) Americans have been killed, and there’s a real possibility of Hamas replicating AQ’s penchant for public beheadings on an unknown number of US hostages soon. That was the move that ISIS copied right before the Western media in-group went apoplectic, popular American support for re-engaging in Iraq flipped, and the CJTF-OIR’s merry band of misfit marauders got involved.

Incidental American deaths don't usually stir the population (“wrong place, wrong time” usually satisfies our blood lust), but public beheadings do. I'm not sure what's next, but if Hama's goes full ISIS on US citizens in Gaza, I would be shocked if we didn't end up sending a whole lot more than a Carrier Battle Group. Hamas deserves everything that is coming, but this is more likely than not to spin up even further.

Some people just need to be killed, and I accept that reality both when I was in uniform and even more so now that I have real skin in the game, my life seemed like a much cheaper price to pay than that of my children’s. Even when I have some understanding of the mechanics of violence and its utility, I still don’t see its appeal.

“I have been studying the traits and dispositions of the ‘lower animals’ (so-called) and contrasting them with the traits and dispositions of man. I find the result humiliating to me.” - Mark Twain