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From a wingnut to a grunt, I can kind of understand the position you're in. Although you've got a much greater chance of seeing combat than I ever did, I always wondered what I would do If I had to take up arms against an enemy. I was an aircraft mechanic, though, so it was pretty much considered that if they needed to issue me a weapon we already lost the war. I worked on special operations aircraft, and I believe I may have even worked with 19delta. I worked with such a variety of forces, they all just sort of blended together after a while.
Anyways, back to your question. Logically, if you're in the Armed Forces and you're required to take life, I don't believe you're breaking the sixth commandment--unless you enjoy it. I look at several things to come up with this answer. For one, I look at the Jews taking over the promised land and they were commanded by God to take a lot of lives. This was after the Ten Commandments were given, and God's word is valid yesterday, today, and all of eternity. God can not contradict Himself. Another thing I look at is the Ten Commandments themselves, and the true meaning of "Thou shalt not kill," and several translations use this, is "You shall not commit murder." Webster's defines murder as "1. To kill (a human being) with premeditated malice. 2. To kill in a barberous or inhumane manner."
Killing on the field of battle is out of necessity. I hate to sound Darwinistic but it's kill or be killed. I also look at Romans 13 which talks about being obedient to those appointed over you because they've been placed there by God. So if you're ordered to kill, you do what you're ordered to do. You're supposed to treat it as a command from God.
Now I've looked at all of these things, and in the logical part of my mind it makes a lot of sense. The problem is in the application of it. Although I know all these things, how would I have felt if I had to take someone's life? I think I would have felt really lousy regardless of how logical I could make it for myself because I'd still be taking somebody's child from them. I hope you weren't writing so you could feel better about the prospect of killing someone because, like I said, I can explain it logically all I want, but my heart's still going to be broken over the enemy's family's loss.
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