Another pause from Tagalog month. Just had to write this.

I was reading further in Newsweek and then I came across about an article of a doctor [batallion surgeon] in the battlefield. The life of Lt. Cmdr. Richard Jadick.

Sure, I am a bit of a warfreak, and I love the grandiose depictions of armies against armies like in LOTR and Braveheart, or maybe the battles in games like Warcraft or such. What I didn't like were those WW2-style scenarios. Why? Because it is too close to home. Their stories have been more documented and romanticized than medieval battles of swords and spears.

And this article in Newsweek seriously activated my empathy gene.

War is ugly.

Sure the generals might be cackling over their triumphs, or their 'strategic victories'. But nothing will ever compare to the horror and the smell of gunpowder that literally clings to the air that are personally felt by the foot soldiers. Ever.

A soldier's life is a life based on numbers. A statistic added to the count of the survivors or the dead. Sure you get a medal, or an honorable funerable. Sure you have served your country or have done your part to preserve freedom and justice.

But is life meant to be lost this way?

Maybe half of the world could be saying yes. There is not better way or purpose than giving up your life for an ideal. Heck, I might be saying the same if a time comes that I must fight for what I protect.

And as we all know, the less you have, the harder you fight for it.

I read on at the article. Finished it, and made a mental note. No normal man in the world is born without fear. Yet these soldiers still join the fray holding fear in their hearts. Fear of death, and fear of agony.

But no man in that time in history would ever compare what it would be like to be a batallion surgeon who needs to be more alive than his fellow soldiers. Death and agony are things he must conquer in himself. In addition to conquering it for thirty others who need him. A burden indeed that will pale to what a million other people have in their lives right now.

Here's to the doctors without having to be in a place of war.

Cheers.