"Mikhail Evstafiev. Two Steps From Heaven " - читать интересную книгу автора

Chapter Three. Panasyuk

Army service consists of discipline, petty tyrannies, humiliations,
details, eating, digesting, sleep and expectation - expectation of orders,
expectation of leave, expectation of returning home, expectation of freedom
from the power of highly placed fools and scoundrels, expectation of the
decrees of Fate. If an army is at war, service also includes expectation of
death: be it in the name of obeying orders, serving the interests of the
Motherland, or simply because on that day, at that moment, a specific number
comes up, YOUR number. Someone must be sacrificed, after all.
Such choices of Fate are subsequently and most frequently described as
heroism and fulfillment of duty, less frequently as sheer bad luck, while
those who stood side by side with death, later find some explanation for
that particular stroke of fortune, even though everyone knows exactly why
and how it came to pass.
But people tied to the army conceal from each other that their survival
so far in this inscrutable lottery has been due to blind luck, no more; and
only in the deepest recesses of their minds, mostly subconsciously, do they
render thanks to that hand, which did not draw THEIR number...

Rebellious Afghan tribes that had refused to swear allegiance to the
new regime had taken refuge on the plain between high mountains. The troops
took up positions on the dominant heights above the plain, presiding above
villages and wooded patches - "greenery" - which lay below silently, like
a predator gone to earth. The troops knew that victory would be theirs, that
the greenery would fall before them, but they also knew the price they would
have to pay.
Those who had planned the battle and were ready to order its start had
already estimated the costs of the operation, because war is a science, and
science demands precision and calculation. War does not excuse weakness, war
knows no mercy, and therefore people who decide to make war never allow
themselves to be guided by such feelings. They deliberately distance
themselves from the epicenter of battle in order not to see the soldiers
they are sending off to be slaughtered, in order not to look into their
eyes. Instead, they content themselves with sending them rousing messages
and promising medals and titles. They are well aware that after victory the
number of the fallen will not be a determining factor, because those who
died will automatically become heroes, while the maimed and wounded shall be
whisked away from the theatre of war to specially devised hospitals and
military medical installations, so the sight of them will not upset their
former comrades in arms and newly arrived reinforcements.

Sharagin's platoon soon took possession of the hill overlooking the
road, making a nest for itself at the top. Like the company, the whole
battalion, and all the units assigned to this particular military operation,
the platoon lived in daily expectation of orders, meanwhile the soldiers
slept under canvas awnings erected on the slope and under armoured cars,