I don;t think not wanting to die or get hurt is the same as cowardice. How fine the line is dividing them I am not sure. My grandad enlisted when he was 17 to fight in the first world war, he and several of his pals all went together, he was only a kid and lied about his age to join up, because he felt it was what he had to do and could not wait until he was 18. Conscription didn;t start until later in the war. he looked after the horses pulling the gun carriages and whilst he was willing to fight as a soldier, he wasn't willing to see the terror in the horses as shells exploded around them and they were blown apart, and so he found the whole thing traumatic and changed how he felt for the rest of his life, and though he came through it all, he was never as brave again, and became a very meek and non confrontational person from the time he returned in 1918. He lost any inclination to fight, and just wanted peace and quiet and always avoided any arguments for the rest of his 60 odd years. I know he was always the one to back down and would never confront anyone and it meant he was seen as weak, but he didn;t start out that way.