Steeling up

SWEATY hands tighten around a forest of long-spears. A rein is pulled taunt to steady a cavalry mount. The cocking of flintlocks echoes up the musket line. Netted helmets brace against the wall of a bouncing landing craft off Guadalcanal. Jungle boots balance on a Huey's landing rail as it approaches a hot LZ. Fingers curl around triggers as a squad moves along a mud brick wall in Kandahar.

Priming for battle just before facing its deadly onslaught has always marked the soldier's life. An unknown writer said, "More powerful than the will to win is the courage to begin." Through Shakespeare's pen, King Henry V encouraged his men to steel themselves this way:

When the blast of war blows in our ears,
Then imitate the action of the tiger;
Stiffen the sinews, conjure up the blood,
Disguise fair nature with hard-favored rage;
Then lend the eye a terrible aspect.

War is not a video game. And until the politicians end it, the only way home for the troops is through Hell's fire. To survive it, they, too, must "lend the eye a terrible aspect."