>>>You know, something about Carters air of spinelessness never *quite*
>>>rang true. For someone who tried to pretend that he was a coward, he
>>>stands up to too many people. Way too many people.
>>
>>The funny thing is, Devlin genuinely does consider himself a
>>physical coward. He hates the thought of being injured or feeling
>>pain - he's terrified by violence and physical conflict. It's just
>>that he can still function while terrified. If you've ever
>>read C.S. Forester's Horatio Hornblower books, Hornblower has a
>>similar mentality in this regard. He routinely upbraids himself for
>>his cowardice because, while committing acts of such astounding
>>courage that they make battle-hardened sailors' jaws drop, he's scared
>>shitless inside his own mind. :)
>
>Bah! That is the true sign of courage. It doesn't take much courage
>to run into a firefight if you aren't scared. But it does take
>bunches of spine to do so if you are pissing your pants from fear, but
>do it anyway's, 'cause it's the right thing to do.
>
See also Ramage (set in same era, slightly less gritty) - no more concern than the next man for physical danger or uppity admirals, but he'll come up with insanely risky plans and once they're underway he does the mental running in circles thing panicking that they're going to fail horribly and leave him with half his crew dead. Considers his secret vice to be moral cowardice: can't keep himself from chossing the risk of high casualties and chance of none agaisnt certainty of moderate casualties to his men.

drakensisthered

So I simply said one of the great trite truths: "There is generally more than one side to a story." - Corwin, Roger Zelazny's 'Courts of Chaos'