Volunteerism and War

As Libya's former rebels get ready to attack the few remaining towns still controlled by Gaddafi loyalists, they continue to be joined by fresh volunteers. At Bani Walid:

Volunteers asking to join the battle said Saturday they were getting increasingly impatient with the standoff. Dozens crowded around a desk at a mosque in Wishtata, a hamlet about 25 miles from Bani Walid, to register their names, blood type and other information.

Abdel Wahab Milad, a 26-year-old teacher from the town of Gharyan, drove dozens of miles to the front in a pickup truck with six friends. Dressed in army fatigues, he said he signed up for battle because it was time to “get rid of Gadhafi once and for all.”

The battles of Libya's war have been nothing like the slaughters of, say, the Iran-Iraq War, but hundreds of people have died in them. The risk of death does not seem to be deterring anyone from fighting. The rebels have more willing soldiers than they can arm or lead into battle, as they have through most of the war. By this point most of them men on Gaddafi's side can be said to be volunteers as well, since all but the most prominent commanders or the torturers could surrender themselves without much risk of punishment, or any real shame. They are fighting because they want to.

War seems terrible and frightening to most Americans, safe in our suburban edens. But many men (and a few women) don't see it that way. So long as the chance of death is not too high, and the odds against some kind of success are not too long, many men love to fight. Compared to the years of stifling frustration so many Libyans have endured, war can even seem like a release. To the Libyan rebels, fighting in a war that they hope will make their lives much better, and that will probably be remembered as a glorious victory for the whole people, is worth taking terrible risks.