A MATTER OF LIFE & DEATH; How Wars Get Started--or Arc Prevented

Potential draftees need this. One of the saddest kinds of news story, one that's been repeated in all the police actions involving U.S. troops since Korea (and before), is that of the frontline fighting men who, when polled, didn't know why they were there or what the fight was about. They didn't know what got them from the U.S. to some pestilential Oriental patch of land, or what the hope of gain was to make them cannon fodder, or what economic, political and emotional chain of blunders and pressures combined to keep them there. By examining prior events and conditioning for three wars--Spanish American, World War I and World War II--Mr. Carr explores for younger readers the differences between individual and national pride, the propaganda of war, its economic chaos, the urge to fight for visible gain and the sometimes necessary obverse, the need to fight back for invisible, intangible ideas. He's done this sort of teaching discussion before in Men of Power, Juggernaut, and adult books suitable for young adults. This is one of those juvenile books that's suitable for adults. Intelligent analysis for future soldiers--and voters.