A child, I grew up with a sharp sense of right and wrong and a sense of justice. From a young age, I made careful observation of diplomatic and judicial processes, including diplomacy at all levels, including the level of the village, national politics and international affairs. I was also conservative in my outlook in life. For example, I believed in the family and stability of the household. On the later, I had some strict views of parsimony and the need the conserve resources to support the family. I also grew up in conservative and highly structured environments – from family, to school and even the communities and neighborhoods. If you were a good boy, you were applauded. If you did well in school, you were rewarded. At the village level, everyone knew your parents and you could not misbehave. I attended a boarding high school where life was regimental and there was strict discipline.

Incidentally, some of my experiences led me to feel a culture shock whenever I witnessed events that were contrary to my beliefs. As I wrote in my book, I was incredulous when I saw a man in a roadside work gang purchasing cooked food with an amount money that he should have spent feeding his feeding his entire family for a whole mean. My attitude was that he should brought cooked food from the house instead of spending so much money on one afternoon mean. Based on this perspective. I never ate out until during the war, when I found myself in difficult places and there was no opportunity to cook food. I was equally shocked when I witnessed a man who patronized a prostitute and a woman who admitted to being one.

In human relations, I had this perspective that right is right and wrong was wrong. Therefore, when I followed the resolution of disputes at the village level or political disputes at the national and international level, I was often shocked when it appeared to me that the truth was being smothered. Even in international affairs, contemporary and historical, I shuddered at what I felt was a miscarriage of justice. Therefore, I read history and desired to be a historian. However, I studied for and became an applied statistician and economic analyst because I felt safer that I would be able to gain employment faster. For if I was historian, I might express myself controversially and become an ideological victim.

Based on my foundations, the war was for me a life changing experience. I could not believe that human beings could be so brutal to each other. The hypocrisy of international diplomacy also shocked me. In the end, I learned valuable lessons from the war and reinforced my new attitude that you do not win because you are right. Nevertheless, there is value in being principled, while recognizing not only that the better part of valor is discretion and that a brave soldier fights today and lives to fight another day.