I was in my "all lives matter" phase of thinking wars and the deaths that happened in them were preventable or avoidable somehow and that everyone had gone along with a horrifying misadventure in faux gallantry. It turned out it was actually pretty fucking necessary and unavoidable and probably could've and would've been much worse had it not been for some of those boys killing those other boys. I still hate war and wars and the idea of young kids going off to die in them for some rich old man or another. Always have. I know it's naive and doesn't reflect human history but I see it as a choice - either groups of humans gather together to create something: a building, art, music, dance, theater, culture, science; or to create mass graves in which to bury each others children.

My grandpa flew in a B-17 over Africa and Normandy in WW2 I asked him once as a teenager, passive aggressively, if it helped not having to see the people he was killing He said, no, that was the bombardier; he was a waist gunner, and every time he killed a Nazi it was so close he could look him in the eyes and see the cockpit fill up with blood.