Since September 11th nothing in America has felt the same. In fact, it is fair to say, that all Westernized nations
and all of the USA's allies have felt the strain of America's post-9-11 pain. From Afghanistan to Iraq, the road to
retribution has been slow to unwind. Add the new reality of a nuclear threat from North Korea to the mix and the
number of enemies at the gate only becomes more disconcerting. With the mass mobilization of troops around the
world it is clear that America and her allies intend to go to war; the only question that remains is what kind of
war it will be. Will it be a clandestine war with deniability as the name of the game? Or, will it be a full blown
publicly aired war played out as much in the media as it is on the battlefield? Will it be quick or drawn out? Will
it be UN sanctioned? Will it be World War 3? Who will make up the "them" and who will make up the "us?"
With the threat of war looming on the horizon, teens all over the planet are feeling the stress. Many of the
anti-war protest marches being held around the world are youth driven with an emphasis on keeping world wars as a
thing for the history books -- that is, something experienced by other generations. Of course, it is fair to say that
teens and young adults have a very vested interest in NOT going to war. Aside from the obvious reasons to keep war
at bay, the youth of all nations have a more personal reason to want war stopped before it starts; namely that they,
and they more than any other group, will make up its greatest percentage of casualties. War eats the young alive.
It is no secret that when countries go to war the young are sent to die. In countries with forced military service,
this obligation is imposed on citizens while they are in their mid-to-late teens, presumably because at this age
they are strong and easily molded to adhere to an ideology. In countries without forced military service the reality
is that most infantry soldiers are young, under the age of 25, and that these low ranked less experienced soldiers
are the pawns of war. They are the boys on the front line, they are the bodies used to populate a battlefield, and
they are the first soldiers to die. Then there is the civilian part of the equation. In war, civilians are displaced.
The slower those civilians are to get out of the line of fire, the more likely they are to become a casualty. This
usually means that the elderly, along with very young children and their mothers or surviving older siblings,
become mortality statistics. With the under the age of 25 death toll being predictably high during times of war, it
is no wonder that teens feel the threat of war differently than adults.
Next Page - The Politics of War - Pages 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8
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