What Motivates a Soldier to Fight?

Day 2,638, 02:53 • Published in Canada India • by Satya Yuga
Press Director’s Note: This is basically written as a stream of consciousness piece as the second article for my Senior Journalist mission. Please bear with the imperfect writing style, but do comment. Remember, it is the comments that result in the completion of the mission.

For me, what motivates a Soldier to fight is liberty -- sometimes for the sake of friendship as was the case with eCanada and eSwitzerland. Sometimes it is for the sake of loyalty as was the case with eIndia and the eUS and -- now as a citizen -- eCanada. Sometimes it involves an emphasis on payback.

Is it payback for Croatia taking part in the wipe of Canada? Not really as I’ve been in wiped countries before. Remember, I’m an immigrant of eIndia. Before that I was a citizen of the eUS, but honestly, I can’t recall if the eUS was ever wiped during my presence there. Sure, they’ve been attacked by numerous countries on several fronts -- which is easy to remember -- but being wiped? If the eUS was, I’m probably repressing that memory.

During Alberta, I was only too happy to dump all my resources, as all I had to do was recall all the times that eCroatia had occupied eIndia. Not because eIndia was a challenge, somebody to fight with honor, but because eIndia was an easy target without a formal alliance. A target they were willing to deprive of regions, even if those additional regions didn’t increase the number of members that eCroatia had in Congress or increase their resource bonuses.

This was before incomplete trade routes and the building of Empires.

What kind of thought process is involved in depriving somebody of something where it doesn’t even result in any additional material gain for the entity doing the depriving? Being mean for the sake of meanness?

Some people will state that this is how you win the game. To this I reply, you are deluded. There are no winners in this game as there is no endpoint at which time somebody can be considered a winner. What there are, are relationships. These relationships consist of how we deal with other countries and how our leadership deals with its citizenry. These relations portray the examples we want to set in how others play this game and -- whether we want to admit it or not -- what strategies we use in how we conduct ourselves IRL.

So, the next time you -- as a country -- decide to be mean for meanness sake. The next time you decide to treat a country like an individual where you take pleasure in placing your boot on his neck. Remember that country consists of individuals who are potential soldiers and remember what motivates those soldiers to fight and dump all they have in the process.