Whatever happened the noble ideal of 'shiny city on the hill', or whatever the phrase was? Not just applicable to the U.S., of course, but to any nation that has a notion to call itself 'civilized', in a very specific, Enlightenment meaning.
“Company C : An American's Life as a Citizen-Soldier in Israel” (Haim Watzman)
Haim Watzman: Hiding Behind the Enemy ...But morality in combat is not just an abstract principle. It is an element of an army's strength. It is also essential to the society that sends the army into battle. If the safety of soldiers becomes the standard according to which an army designs its missions, the army will not have the courage to take risks. An army that does not take risks will be easily beaten by an opponent that does.It's not unreasonable for a society to demand that its army observe moral standards, even if the price to be paid is that more soldiers will be killed.
...Laws and moral rules are another set of constraints. Soldiers sometimes chafe at them because, unlike hills and bullets, they seem like artificial and unnecessary barriers. In a purely military sense, armies could better do their jobs if they could ignore the civilians on the battlefield. But we don't allow them to ignore civilians. And truth be told, I've never met a soldier who thinks armies ought to be able to maim and kill civilians with impunity.
