AN AFTER THOUGHT (see below): NATIONALISM IS NO DIFFERENT THAN OTHER FORMS OF RELIGION: THERE CAN ONLY BE ONLY ONE TRUE GOD. As the Moslems say, "Death to the non-believers." KILL THOSE WHO DON'T BELIEVE IN YOUR GOD.

That's what war and the politics of war is (or was): KILL THOSE WHO DON'T BELIEVE IN THE ONE TRUE GOD. "My GOD IS GREATER THAN YOUR GOD." Soldiers are the "representatives" of God. Killing soldiers means killing those who represent the other god.

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Warfare is not based on the biological desire to kill. Soldiers don't "get off" on it. The evidence points in this direction.

The purpose war is to get the representative of the other nation to die. His death is required because he represents an alternative sacred object. In the First World War, some men worshipped Great Britain, others France, others Germany. Western people (unlike Asians) believed that there can be only one god. Killing  the other means killing representatives of a group of people that don't believe in the one (true) god.

Warfare is the opposite of cultural relativity. There can be only ONE TRUTH; one god. If Germany is GOD, France cannot be god, nor can Great Britain.

War is undertaken to prove which entity is the one true god. It's getting the other guy to die because he doesn't believe in god. Warfare's purpose is to prove the god (the nation) that the other nation worships is a false god. 

Warfare and terrorism function according to the same dynamic: DEATH TO THE NON-BELIEVER. The other must die because he doesn't believe in your god, thus negating the meaning of existence.

Warfare is based on abstract ways of thinking; killing is spiritual: kill those whose existence negates your own sacred ideal; destroys the meaning of your existence. 

Richard Koenigsberg