Honor, country, valor...these surely are worthwhile, elevated ideas by themselves, wouldn't you agree? And yet men are dying for them, in a decidedly un-elevated way. Face-down in the mud, choking on blood, screaming in pain. Men that were fathers, or brothers, or sons to someone out there. Men that were fed, and cleaned, and nursed, and schooled into this world by their mothers, only to fall on a battlefield far from those that provoke these tragedies. Those men remain at home, untouched by blood or bayonet. Their skin unpierced, their blankets warm and clean. That is what happens when ideas are pursued by fools.