The colonel kept muttering "fear" in his mouth. What was he afraid of? Fear of death? - It seems not, he wished to be killed by the captain; fear of killing? Probably not, though he hated the piles of dead men's arms, but he thought he could win the war with enough non-thinking soldiers.
The whole movie is insane. From the head of the cavalry regiment to crazy obsession with surfing, fighting like a child's play. To the four crew members, the indiscriminate killing of innocents under fear, indulgent lust, and even the battlefield as a playground. There are also the ladies of the condolence team; the uncommanded soldiers in various positions, and the fantasy "old nobles" in the French manor. It is light to say that they are crazy, and it is not too much to say that they are crazy.
Of course, the most insane person is the hero himself. From the hysteria in the room at the beginning, to the seemingly calm or even cold expression on the way (in fact, it is just a pretended calm on the verge of collapse), the hero is crazy every moment.
The reason why the colonel didn't kill him may be because he found that the captain, like him, was completely conquered and controlled by fear, good and evil were just a matter of thought.
Back to the nature of fear, what are they afraid of? Some clues can be seen from the noise of the French at the banquet.
"We French are fighting for the homeland we have built, and you Americans are fighting for the most nihilistic thing in history."
The colonel knew as much as the captain that the war could not be won because its purpose was nothing in itself. All crazy people don't understand why they should commit themselves to such senseless cruelty. The slaughter of nothingness, the blood of nothingness, the fear of death from nothingness hangs over everyone.
Regrettably, only killing and death can relieve all of this.
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