Your Soldiers Are Wack Yo

Nate's post responding to Sam here about the psychological effects of war on soldiers is, I think, right on the mark. Ever since the time of the Visigoths sacking Rome warriors have committed unspeakable atrocities against the enemy and civilians. Technology simply extended the ability of soldiers to inflict that kind of suffering. In addition, though, the doctrine of total war led to more unrestrained warfare. The countries in World War I largely fought away from cities, meaning that direct harm to civilians was minimal. The perceived destruction wrought by the war largely lay in its futility, senselessness, and enormous burden upon civilian populations.

While World War I may have been a more traumatic experience for soldiers, it did not represent a paradigm shift in how soldiers felt about war. The paradigm shift lay in the instruments they used to wage war, which yielded the unprecedented scale of the conflict.

A final point is that the worst atrocities committed during the war were not perpetrated by individual soldiers but by nation states. The Armenian genocide, for example. At the level of states, perhaps, the effects of nationalism and the horrific nature of the war might have been significant.