Harry's choice to save the world

[doddiemoemoe]

No: HPFGUIDX 184738

I've included the responses of Alla and Catlady below my response...

DD
  I'm responding to Catlady who  stated:  "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. "

As a disabled veteran I have a few things to say...

Post U.S. withdrawal from Vietnam, almost 3 million were killed.
(genocide?!?), we sat and watched 100's of thousands killed in 
Bosnia, Ethiopia..not to mention the millions of Darfur(so many 
countries, so many armed forces, all they could do was protect 
convoys of aid...until it was delivered to a certain point). Tens of 
thousands of troups from all countries who could never fire a gun, 
who risked their lives only to feed the oppressors..

  After the FIRST persuian gulf conflict..when Colin Powel et. al. 
were sitting signing the papers...Sadam Huesein insisted that his 
Helocopters be allowed to fly so they could patrol/protect his 
borders...as soon as the U.S. agreed...many, many, many innocent 
Kuwaiti/Iraqui women and children were shot down by said 
helocopters..

 Our U.S. armed forces are a completely volunarty service..dunno 
about so many other countries..Even in the U.S....they don't have to 
serve if they don't want to, even after volunteering..(there may be 
repurcussions, but they do not HAVE to serve)..and we have no 
mandatory draft!(perhaps if so many of our jobs were not shipped 
abroad, many more would not volunteer).

Of course Harry will make any sacrifice necessary to protect the 
world he's ACCEPTED in..he loves both worlds muggle and magic(to a 
different degree perhaps but he loves both--and he may not have if 
not for Arthur Weasley)..he sees the fallicies and benefits of both! 
He see's the family/loved ones(of himself and others) in both worlds.

  I've just seen so much of this world, and so much wrong....I oft 
wonder how many millions of lives may have been saved if the U.S. 
had entered the war sooner rather than later...

In the WW, Harry's been deemed a "little soldier" for most of his 
life...there is a choice Harry had to make...I really loathe the 
fact that DD felt some manipulation was in order to ensure Harry 
would make that happen..

DD
(Whose Brit mum was left an orphan afer WWII and has had American 
Ancestor Veterans serving since the French/Indian war, and whose war 
of "youth" was one she served in).

> Alla wrote in
> << 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?

"Catlady (Rita Prince Winston)"wrote: 
> 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.
>