Battling the Dilemma of Combat: Man's Desire to Fight

On March 20, 2003 with the support of the American people, President Bush and the United States of America declared war on Saddam Hussein, as well as the Iraqi nation. The waging of the war cost billions of dollars each day, as the United States prepared to ship over ten thousand American soldiers, an immense amount of ammunition, and dangerous biological weapons. Following the stationing in Iraq, the American soldiers bravely anticipated the day where they would come to the call of their country and serve on the "battlefield." Although carrying out "Operation: Iraq Freedom" required a great deal of bravery, patriotism, and dignity, the most important element needed was the will to fight. The deciding factor in whether the war commenced or not was whether the American soldiers possessed the will and determination to engage in warfare. However, where does the will to fight submerge from? Despite Author Barbara Enrenreich's claim that "even when men have been assembled, willingly or unwillingly, for the purpose of war, fighting is not something that seems to come `naturally' to them"(par 8), man's desire to partake in combat in indeed innate.

Our tendency as humans to fight is, without a doubt, inherent. According to a famous psychologist, the propensity for fighting began a long time ago, which for many, was when we were still of young age. The first signs of spontaneous indignation that children usually display begin when they realize that preeminence is no longer possible. This usually occurs when they interact with children whom they have never interacted with before, or when the child covets something that belongs to another child. One such example is when children first go to school.

Entering school for the first time...

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...can in turn lead to many benefits, however having poor instinct may be dangerous. Whichever way we choose to use our instincts usually depends on the experiences we have endured and how we have been raised. Perhaps when Herbert Spencer coined the term "survival of the fittest", he subliminally meant "survival of those with the best instincts."

Work Cited:

· Enrenreich, Barbara. "The Ecstasy of War." The Prose Reader: Essays for Thinking, Reading, and Writing. Ed. Kim Flachmann, and Michael Flachmann. Up Saddle River: Prentice Hall, 2002.

· Enrenreich, Barbara. The Roots of War. 10 Apr. 2003.http://www.alternet.org/story.Ht ml?StoryID=1604.

· LeShan, Lawrence. Why We Love War. Jan./Feb. 2003. http://www.utne.com/pub/200 3_115/promo/10207-2.html.