Glorious Death Essay, Research Paper

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. 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.