With the current situations in Angola and Kosovo. And Past situations like
the Civil War and WWII. A question arises. 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. 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.
