Watching a battle scene in a film, it comes naturally for viewers to utter "war is insane." This seems obvious to the "average Joe."
 

But historians don't say this. They treat fantastic episodes of violence, self-destruction or mass-destruction as forms of "normality."

 

"It's war: this is what people do." Suddenly, scholars lose their analytic or "deconstructive" skills. 
 

Why is this?