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Is it Glorious to Die for your Country?
Is it glorious to die for your country?.... This question
has been posed to many young people about to embark on war although the
answer has usually been yes in response to their country due mainly to the
fact that the government instills it in the people of the country to
support one's country and one way is to send young abled bodied men into
the army. If you were one individual that was not in favour of fighting
for your country you would surely become an outcast by the countries
people. To avoid ridicule and becoming outcasted by the people living
around you, you would join the army just in the thought that you were
obligated to for the sole sake of your country. Such thoughts were
reinforced by the government promotion of propaganda. Glorifying death is
not needed to be taught and should be up to the sole individual. School
systems should teach an unbiased point of view of war to enable the child
to make their own decision to fight for one's country.
Is it Glorious to Die for your Country? Within the education system it was
instructed to the teachers to teach the children at a young age during the
brink of war to instill that their the life of the country and for them to
defend their country against the enemy. Teachers showed being in a army
was representing honour and the pride of the country. Guilt was laid on
the students who showed rebellion by the teacher. Many times the teacher
would try to show a soldier that looks happy and content trying to
represent being a soldier makes you happy and content.
Many young inexperienced soldiers were sent to training camps near the
battle fields that they would soon be sent to fight, for their country and
their life. The training camps were situated on similar enviroments that
resembled the battle fields of where the fighting would take place.
Reinforced displine to the young and ignorant men.
Trench warfare is when many soldiers of opposing countries fight against
each other across a vast desolate, dirt covered land, and the only sense
of cover was to crouch in a usually water logged trench. The sense of
death engulfed your very soul, the constant bombardment of shells echo in
your mind long after it had ceased.
On the Western front conditions were horrible to say the least, stench of
death remained constantly in the air, bodies riddled with bullet wounds
lay across the bottoms of the trenches, dismembered bodies scattered
across the landscape and the sounds of agonizing and dying men echo across
the battle grounds. Very limited rations offering very little in flavour
was the only food available to the soldiers. Often raining, it caused
muddy, damp conditions. The men staying in a trench filled with water and
muddy conditions often caused such diseases as trench foot and trench
mouth. Contagious diseases were spread quickly. Lack of cleaniness gave
many soldiers lice and rats would run through the trenches feeding on the
garbage and human wastes.
Thousands of soldiers would line up under the cover of their trenches for
a stretch of miles and wait for the leading officer to give the signal for
the charge. When the signal was given the thousands of soldiers would all
try to run across the no-man's land to attempt the breach of the enemies
trench. This charge would be under constant machine gun fire and mortar
shelling by the enemy.
These kind of attacks usually failed maily due to the fact the odds were
already stacked against the attacking party. The distances the charging
men had to run to get to the enemies trench was far enough for the enemy
to use it's constant shelling and it's machine gun fire to dwindle the
attacking army significant enough for the attacking army to retreat.
Counter attacks were quickly attempted after the attacks. The counter
attacks were similiar to the actual attacks except the difference was that
the counter attack involved the killing of the retreating of the enemy
instead of attacking someone under the cover of the trench.
During the war all soldiers were affected either physically or
phsycologically. Shell shock was an ongoing sickness affecting many
soldiers in the trenches. The constant bombardment of mortar shelling
became so defeaning and monotonous the sounds of shelling remained with
the soldier even when there was no shelling. Such cases became so severe
for some the soldier would go in fits of rage and fear at the very same
instantance. Virtually all soldiers felt homesick at one time or another.
The soldiers being out on the battle fronts for a long time soon forgot
the propaganda beliefs the country had instilled the soldiers, instead the
soldiers just wanted to survive their tour of duty however long it would
be. Death had been experienced and seen by the soldiers on the front for a
long time that the themes had become relative to their daily life on the
front. Coming back to their homes the soldiers had received and learned of
a new perpective on war. It was that when face to face with death the
political beliefs that were held were irrevalant when trying to survive in
the war.
Glorification of death is ridiculous unless you were being attacked and
threat of death was present that would be another story but to die for a
something many miles away is something that the individual must take in
consideration in when making his or her decision. I personally would not
risk death if friends and family were not at risk. Since our country has
become less militarized since WWII the need for military personnel has not
been as necessary. But as mentioned before if the country I lived was
under a threat of takeover I believe I would take up arms to defend
against the people who would try to attack. Other than that the
physcological and physical damages soldiers endure would deter me from
joining any army.
ADDITIONAL FEATURED ESSAYS
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