Wars are fought to testify to the truth of a society's sacred ideal. That for which we die, we imagine, must be true. Death in battle represents a form of validation.

After battles, memorials are erected by nations to permanently remind us of the truth for which soldiers had killed and died.

If so many human beings gave their lives for an idea or entity, we imagine the idea must be true; that the entity must be real.

This hypothesis applies equally to wars brought into existence by men or ideas we consider good, and by men or ideas we consider evil.

Hitler’s soldiers in the Second World War were compelled to kill and die to prove that Germany was the Master Race.

Lincoln's soldiers in the Civil War were compelled to kill and die to prove that the United States could not exist "Half slave and Half free."

The proof of the pudding is in the killing and dying.