Quote:
Originally Posted by parmnion
The stupid **** mockingly called it a "teenage dads army" forgetting in the process he would be tarnishing the memories of all the fallen teenagers who helped keep out the nazis.
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I don't think it's tarnishing the memory of the countless teenage boys killed in war, to point out that it's unfathomable that all throughout history, rich comfortable men have sent barely-trained children (not their own rich ones) into battle to die or come home maimed or traumatised.
As a society we are - or should be - past the point where our armies are stocked with anything but well-trained, paid, professional soldiers (and support) who have signed up of their own free will. Should we be very grateful to the people who had to go to war for us in the past? Absolutely we should, but it's NOT something to be celebrated, and not something we should ever be keen to repeat. Banal misty-eyed completely fake nostalgia for a time that never existed. It wasn't all stoicism and valiantly putting up a brave front, a lot of it was 18 year old kids, terrified out of their wits, desperate to just go home, and blown to pieces within a few days of putting their feet on the ground in Europe. Unimaginable horror. The idea is that those who came before us were somehow bigger, braver and better than the kids you see on the street today. The VERY SAD reality is that they were not. Kids have always just been kids.