The article is not a sociological or psychological treatise, but if you put some credence at all into what is partly (but not exclusively) anecdotal evidence, i

The article is not a sociological or psychological treatise, but if you put some credence at all into what is partly (but not exclusively) anecdotal evidence, it makes the case that for many (probably the majority) who find themselves in infantry combat, it is worse than they feared or imagined. If it is protracted (and a figure of ~200 days is given), essentially all the survivors are traumatized, often profoundly. During the 82-day battle of Okinawa, I believe American lieutenants were in combat on average less than two weeks before being killed or becoming a casualty through traumatic injury (and it was worse for the Japanese troops), which cannot be passed off as long periods of boredom. The article is specifically about front-line experience, which (it is claimed, plausibly) is very different than even that of rear-echelon troops, and commingling the two does a disservice to the former. I feel fairly confident in saying that watching a horror movie is nothing like any of it.