Classical military ethics made readiness to die the essence of martial virtue.

Evidence

Being “ready to die” seemed to be one of the main factors in victory, the very heart of what Clausewitz had called “moral strength.” That was the ultimate horizon: “We should not forget that our mission is to kill and be killed. We should never close our eyes to that fact. Making war by killing without being killed is a chimera; making war by being killed without killing is inept. So one must know how to kill, while being ready to die oneself. A man who is committed to death is terrible.” According to classic philosophical ideals, warfare continued to be the moral experience par excellence: to make war was to be ready to die. — Grégoire Chamayou, A Theory of the Drone, 346

Categorization

• DEFINE: Quotes Clausewitz’s ‘moral strength’ as the classical definition of battlefield readiness to die.
• XREF: connects to: Martial virtues of courage and sacrifice functioned ideologically to justify butchery. — Grégoire Chamayou, A Theory of the Drone, 345

Related

• Martial virtues of courage and sacrifice functioned ideologically to justify butchery. (similarity 0.86)

Broader Connections

• Martial virtues of courage and sacrifice functioned ideologically to justify butchery. #complicates (0.50) — Grégoire Chamayou, A Theory of the Drone, 345