The tragedy of war

Din "Breaker Morant", un film din 1980:

"Yet there is no evidence to suggest that Lt. Morant has an intrinsically barbarous nature. On the contrary. The fact of the matter is that war changes men's natures. The barbarities of war are seldom committed by abnormal men. The tragedy of war is that these horrors are committed by normal men in abnormal situations. Situations in which the ebb and flow of everyday life have departed and have been replaced by a constant round of fear and anger and blood and death. Soldiers at war are not to be judged by civilian rules. As the prosecution is attempting to do. Even though they commit acts which, calmly viewed afterwards could only be seen as unchristian and brutal. And if in every war, particularly guerilla war all the men who committed reprisals were to be charged and tried as murderers court-martials like this one would be in permanent session. Would they not? I say that we cannot hope to judge such matters unless we ourselves have been submitted to the same pressures, the same provocations as these men, whose actions are on trial."