Join the army - see exciting places, do exciting things - get shot and come home in a body bag.
Shock and dismay always seems to accompany the news that another young man or woman has been killed in our war zones. Why? Isn't that the point of the army? It's not a boys club or a some variant of extreme sports that you get paid for - it's about donating your life to your country with the understanding that if called upon you will be killed in the defence of that country. Britain has been very good at persuading (largely poor working class) young men to line up to be shot or bombed in various parts of the world and extremely adept at disguising the poor reasons for doing so ('illegal' wars in Iraq, 'legal' ones elsewhere).
I have always wondered why anyone should volunteer for the armed forces - don't they know that even now with our new technology and modern warfare, that they are just cannon fodder, just as they always were. Officers get killed too of course, but less often ...much less often.
What I don't get is pictures of grieving or angry parents in the press. Many of the children killed must have signed up when they were under 18, when they do, they require the consent of their parents. I would not permit my child to join the army. It would be like giving tacit agreement to the statement " i am happy that my son or daugher will be shot at some point in the near future and I will bury him". Didn't these parents think about the consequences of that signature? Don't they know?
And if the the son or daughter was over 18 why didn't they try to stop them? Everyone knows that the UK is involved in armed conflicts around the world - and that the men and women involved in the armed forces are being killed? Why didn't they say - work at Tescos Johnny and end up alive?
To come to members of the press and weep on their shoulders after the funeral - to seek absolution from guilt by blaming the government or the MOD is just plain wrong. the Armed Forces are about volunteering to be shot first and getting a good working knowledge of a tank second. No parent worth the name would allow their child to sign up, any parent that signs a consent form needs to take stock of the potential dreadful outcome of that signature.