Do Soldiers Fight for a Cause?

[M-A Lagrange]

Why soldiers - now - would fight for a cause?

The ones who are actually having a real cause to defend are the insurgents. They fight for whatever reason (free a country, establish the world of god, get access to money...) but they are the ones engaging themselves for a cause.

Imposing as a axiom that Western soldiers are fighting for a cause is just part of the "political" process of justifying the use of violence by West under the philisophy of a Just War. (Do not mistake me, each and every men or women joining the army may do it for a cause, not just for scholarship or money).

Denying to the enemy the fact that he is actually fighting for a cause is just part of the process of denying him the right to be a Just Opponent.

By denying to the opponant the right to defend a cause (just or not) we are trying to denie his status of soldier and, in the best case, assimilate him to an outlaw. This process, in the end, leads to the denial of war prisoner status and the justification of unfair, unlawfull, unjust means to conduct war.