Harry's choice to save the world

[Catlady (Rita Prince Winston)]

No: HPFGUIDX 184709

Alla wrote in
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/184707>:

<< One of my grandmother's brothers went to regular army during Second
war II and was killed. My great grandmother from what I heard begged
him not to go. If she would have begged him **to go**, I would find it
weird, you know? >>

Oh, dear. I've been thinking of World War II as I read this thread
about whether Harry should have been allowed to choose to sacrifice
himself to save his world, but thinking only of the American
experience. There was no reason for Jews to feel patriotic about
Mother Russia, and Stalin wasted his soldiers' lives by the million ...

I suspect that America has never in my lifetime fought a war that was
worth fighting, but it is generally agreed that WWII was worth
fighting, that Hitler's Reich was a real military threat to the
survival of USA, as well as an archetype of evil. My father didn't
serve in that war (he had some kind of deferment for being a grad
student in physics) and I don't know what my grandmother said to him
about it.  

But it would sound "weird" to me if I heard of a parent of that
generation begging her son NOT to enlist in the war, except maybe for
urging him to finish high school first. Even the pacifists, the
Quakers and Mennonites, served in non-combat positions, often the even
more dangerous position of medical research subject.

The war of *my* youth was Vietnam, which was a complete waste of
lives, money, environment, etc. I don't know if any parents requested
their sons to enlist in it without waiting to be drafted, but I've
sure heard of a lot of parents who urged their sons to obey their
draft notices, saying that it was their patriotic duty to their
country, necessary to prevent USA from being conquered by USSR, and
obeying the law. And sometimes when their sons refused to obey their
draft summons, the parents refused to speak to them ever again.