Jack Donovan reads War

and extrapolates a definition of honor from Junger's potrayal of American soldiers in Afghanistan:

At the same time though, Junger reverently describes the soldiers he knows as being “honorable.” It is difficult to tell exactly what he meant, but in light of his other comments and my own thinking and reading about honor, I’ll take a stab at it.

Junger explains in the quote above that the combat itself is not about honor. And we don’t offer the soldiers who risk their lives the sort of public esteem or glory that they might have received at another time in history. We don’t spend much time “singing their songs,” because Westerners have officially nurtured a civilized horror of war. The most basic form of honor, reflexive honor, is definitely evident in Junger’s stories from the Korengal -- especially when members of the group are killed in action and the group retaliates. Bravery and strength are evident in all of the men, and it seems to me that the sort of honor which best matches their deeds is public honor, but in the most insular sense. The outside world doesn’t understand the soldiers, outsiders can't know what they've been through, but they understand each other. Their honor is public within the context of their small honor group -- the tribe. They don’t want to be shamed by the group and fear failing their brothers-at-arms. Their honor is a reputation for courage, strength and masculine virtue as it is defined culturally by the other men who they respect and depend on at these rugged outposts in the graveyard of empires.