"The enemy is whoever is going to get you killed no matter which side they are on" (synopsis of Catch 22)

During the draft in the Viet Nam War and also in many situations during World War II the enemy was "whoever" is going to get you killed no matter which side they were on. I have been told for example, many "Fragging" stories from Viet Nam where  (90 day wonders) American "Young Lieutenants" were fragged because they didn't have the sense to come in out of the rain and were going to get their men under them killed. "Fragging" was rolling a live hand grenade into the tent of a "90 day wonder" young lieutenant who didn't know how to keep his soldiers alive yet. So, they pretended it was the Viet Cong (North Vietnamese doing the fragging).

This has become much less of a problem since they ended the draft. Since the army and all services are "Volunteer" you usually don't see this problem after Viet Nam or World War II.

However, historically an all volunteer Army is dangerous to the ongoing nature of any country especially a Democracy over time. The way it is dangerous is nepotism and loyalty to military service over the actual and real needs of one's countrymen and women.

partial quote from:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catch-22#Synopsis

Synopsis[edit]

The development of the novel can be split into segments. The first (chapters 1–11) broadly follows the story fragmented between characters, but in a single chronological time in 1944. The second (chapters 12–20) flashes back to focus primarily on the "Great Big Siege of Bologna" before once again jumping to the chronological 'present' of 1944 in the third part (chapter 21–25). The fourth (chapters 26–28) flashes back to the origins and growth of Milo's syndicate, with the fifth part (chapter 28–32) returning again to the narrative present but keeping to the same tone of the previous four. The sixth and final part (chapter 32 on) remains in the story's present, but takes a much darker turn and spends the remaining chapters focusing on the serious and brutal nature of war and life in general.^[3] Previously the reader had been cushioned from experiencing the full horror of events, but in the final section, the events are laid bare. The horror begins with the attack on the undefended Italian mountain village, with the following chapters involving despair (Doc Daneeka and the Chaplain), disappearance in combat (Orr and Clevinger), disappearance caused by the army (Dunbar) or death of most of Yossarian's friends (Nately, McWatt, Mudd, Kid Sampson, Dobbs, Chief White Halfoat and Hungry Joe), culminating in the unspeakable horrors of Chapter 39, in particular the rape and murder of Michaela, who represents pure innocence.^[3] In Chapter 41 the full details of the gruesome death of Snowden are finally revealed. Despite this, the novel ends on an upbeat note with Yossarian learning of Orr's miraculous escape to Sweden and Yossarian's pledge to follow him there.

Style[edit]

Many events in the book are repeatedly described from differing points of view, so the reader learns more about each event from each iteration, with the new information often completing a joke, the setup of which was told several chapters previously. The narrative's events are out of sequence, but events are referred to as if the reader is already familiar with them so that the reader must ultimately piece together a timeline of events. Specific words, phrases, and questions are also repeated frequently, generally to comic effect.

Much of Heller's prose in Catch-22 is circular and repetitive, exemplifying in its form the structure of a Catch-22. Circular reasoning is widely used by some characters to justify their actions and opinions. Heller revels in paradox, for example: "The Texan turned out to be good-natured, generous and likable. In three days no one could stand him", and "The case against Clevinger was open and shut. The only thing missing was something to charge him with." This atmosphere of apparently logical irrationality pervades the book.

While a few characters are most prominent, notably Yossarian and the Chaplain, the majority of named characters are described in detail with fleshed out or multidimensional personas to the extent that there are few if any "minor characters."

Although its non-chronological structure may at first seem random, Catch 22 is highly structured. It is founded on a structure of free association, ideas run into one another through seemingly random connections. For example, Chapter 1 entitled "The Texan" ends with "everybody but the CID man, who had caught a cold from the fighter captain and come down with pneumonia."^[4]Chapter 2, entitled "Clevinger", begins with "In a way, the CID man was pretty lucky because outside the hospital the war was still going on."^[5] The CID man connects the two chapters like a free association bridge and eventually Chapter 2 flows from the CID man to Clevinger through more free association links.

Yossarian comes to fear his commanding officers more than he fears the Germans attempting to shoot him down and he feels that "they" are "out to get him." Chief among the reasons Yossarian fears his commanders more than the enemy is that as he flies more missions, Colonel Cathcart increases the number of required combat missions before a soldier may return home; he reaches the magic number only to have it retroactively raised. He comes to despair of ever getting home and is greatly relieved when he is sent to the hospital for a condition that is almost jaundice. In Yossarian's words:

The enemy is anybody who's going to get you killed, no matter which side he's on, and that includes Colonel Cathcart. And don't you forget that, because the longer you remember it, the longer you might live.^[6]

While the military's enemies are Germans, none appear in the story as an enemy combatant. This ironic situation is epitomized in the single appearance of German personnel in the novel, who act as pilots employed by the squadron's Mess Officer, Milo Minderbinder, to bomb the American encampment on Pianosa. This predicament indicates a tension between traditional motives for violence and the modern economic machine, which seems to generate violence simply as another means to profit, quite independent of geographical or ideological constraints.^[7] Heller emphasizes the danger of profit seeking by portraying Milo without "evil intent." Milo's actions are portrayed as the result of greed, not malice.^[8]