Why do we teach our children to respect human life only to send them off to war at 18?

Answer 1

When you put it this way, it doesn't make any sense does it. Especially for NO LOGICAL REASON !

Answer 2

Before you send someone off as a soldier, you better teach them to respect life. Our current problem is over a couple of them that lost sight of that.

Not exactly what you were asking though...

Way back when, on a certain September 10th, there existed two buildings in New York that are not there anymore. We sent our 18 year olds to Afghanistan to do something about it.

Then, a certain president appeared to have lost focus, and got us involved in another war, which is probably the one you are asking about.

It does not make sense to me either.

The downside to all this, is we are teaching our kids to kill. To be afraid of any contact with any person because they could be blown up. The real cost of this thing is not the Billions we paid Halberton, or the billions we will pay to replace the equipment, but the cost of those kids that return, and what we just taught them.

And at least that part is the same as Vietnam. Not the war mind you, but what is going to return.

Hey, I voted as best I could. Both elections. If you didn't well, where ever you are, there you go.

Answer 3

You have to look at the big picture. Historically, our nation has respected human life. That dosen't mean that when you send 130,000 soldiers into battle that a few of them won't do things they should not. That also does not mean that we should just stand by and let people like Saddam do whatever they want. What kind of world do you think we would have if the US just looked the other way all the time. We are the world's superpower and we have a responsibility to get involved. That means that sometimes people will get hurt and/or die but what would the results be if we never got involved in anything?

Answer 4

Nobody is being sent to war, people willingly enlist into the Army, and it being a time of conflict and war, it's no surprise that they end up in Iraq. People can join the Army at 17 with two parental signatures, by the way, so you can go in fresh after highschool if you'd like. There is no draft yet of civilians so nobody is being 'sent off'. It's by choice, whether they were pushed into it because they needed money/school funds, or because they wanted to.

Fighting for the country has nothing to do with disrespecting human life. There are many soldiers whose jobs are not hurting anyone, but rather aiding. Thousands of soldiers are scouring Iraq and building hospitals, making makeshift homes and protecting civilians during crossfire. The only thing the media enlightens on this side of the ocean is the negative, like how many Americans died, or how many people Americans killed.

I was in the Army (at 17, but left after a little over a year due to a serious injury that led to infection and I was no longer suitable for combat, ch.2 medical discharge -honorable) and my husband was a Marine and many of my friends are in the military or were in the military. People go into bootcamp as complete idiots. They are surprised that they have to meet fitness goals, are lazy and disrespectful, and they make children of themselves to get out. People are foolish. I saw how little everyone in bootcamp paid attention in '04. All the women were too lazy to clean the bay, everyone complained, and barely anyone could meet the fitness standards.

People acted like idiots, they would self-injure and say they would kill themselves and that they wanted out, but they WILLINGLY Signed in! They complained because they had to run every day and didn't get enough sleep. Hello, it's boot camp!

I was very dissapointed. And some of these people make it to go to Iraq, and they're the ones that never paid attention. They don't know their first aid, or how to dismantle their rifle and clean it. They are making themselves and their squads vulnerable.

I am tired of hearing condemning talk about soldiers, because real soldiers respect life, kill only when need be, and walk into combat and take a bullet to pull a hurt soldier off the field.

In bootcamp every soldier is instructed specifically to take any casualty off the field, enemy or friendly. You must shelter and feed and care for any hurt enemy. There is a lot of honor in the system. It is a 'soldier's' choice to disregard and disrespect his own uniform.

Answer 5

Because some cultures don't teach their children to respect human life. Some cultures teach their children that to TAKE the lives of humans that are not like them, will get them into heaven.

Therefore, we send our children to war at 18 to protect us, and other children, from those who wish to do us harm.

Answer 6

"War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things. The decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks that nothing is worth war is much worse. The person who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself."

-- John Stuart Mill

We go to war because we respect both human life and the freedoms that are important to making that life worth living. Some people understand this truth at 18 while others, sadly, will never understand it.

Answer 7

I suggest reading Howard Zinn's "Peoples History" for perspective. He also fowarded a book called "Green Parrots" by a medical doctor that provides international relief for civilian populations in war torn areas. I think that most of us people around the world teach our children to only respect SOME life and to see those others as just that -"others". A movie that I think illustrates this is Hotel Rwanda, which was based on a true story. I think this attitutude is pervasive in ours, as well as other cultures....I am a mother and teacher so I come with that perspective. I am also married into a Jewish family and my father grew up during and after WWII in the Netherlands. In this so called "Good War" we went to war only after Pearl Harb. don't forget :)

Answer 8

The basic respect for all human life is a key in the fighting of these wars. We are not at war to conquor or opress, but to protect basic human rights that some are not afforded. I pray that our men and women serving in these war zones keep those teachings near and dear.

Answer 9

Why don't we teach our children to respect human life, should be the question. Many of us try to teach them, but then society comes along and makes it legal to kill people -- pre-born people, aka babies -- via abortion! Not only that, but I think with all the violence in video games, movies, and television (and real life!), our children are becoming numb to the concept of respecting and/or protecting human life. Thankfully, there are people who are willing to protect us by willingly going to war. We owe them our greatest respect.

Answer 10

Freeing people, liberating people, stopping the spread of evil communism are all about respecting human life. War to free others is not incompatible with respecting human life.

For example, in Iraq, we overthrew a totalitarian regime that systematically tortured and murdered its citizens, which supported terrorism, and which had invaded and threatened other countries. And currently in Iraq, we are protecting innocent Iraqi civilians from terrorist insurgents who wish to blow them up.

These are compatible with respect for human life.

Answer 11

Because war is about respecting human life.

Wars are fought to protect people. True, people die, but on the whole more people are saved by the war having taken place.

Look at WWII...a lot of people died because of it (can't remember the figure) but the whole world was saved.