There is something about the nature of war that men crave.

Young men must test their resilience to adversity. They need to go through hell and back to feel immortal. They need to watch people to die to know what it is to live. And they need to lose their companions to understand the bond of friendship. There is nothing that can create a friend as close as a friend who has been there while you have been through hell. Most cultures have some sort of impossible-seeming task to go through before being accepted as a man.

The men who were unfortunate enought to go live without a war know this too. Somewhere in the depth of their monkey brain, they resent that there was no War when they were of an age to go and fight and prove they were Men. And the men who fought in a War deride those who tried but had no proper war to fight in, but they purely mock those who weren't man enough to go and fight.

Sure, most veterans would tell you they fought because they had to. Defending our nation and keeping everyone back home safe. And they are proud of most of what they did. But perhaps they are most pleased at gesturing at Darwin- see I am fit to breed. I am a survivor.
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