Widow Testifies at a Military Court

[ShadowHM]

Hi Pete

Achilles was about 14 to 16 when he was (a) considered the greatest warrior of the Achaeans and (b) the leader of the Myrmidons, the fiercest fighters among the Achaeans, and © killed by Paris. I doubt that he was considered a child by his contemporaries. And, yes, he's not exactly an historical figure, but the more the archaeologist dig, the more Homer seems to be vindicated.

Right. So the warrior who sulked for days before actually joining in the battle and then dragged the corpse of his fallen enemy around for nine days is a revered warrior whose exploits are relevant today and who we should still admire. And we would reward that behaviour today with songs and fame instead of military prison.

How? The same as you would at any age. You see the violence, the death, the suffering and you turn away from it. At 8 or 10 or 15. If you do a search with bing on {"war zone" children refugee}, you'll get over 150,000 links. Pick them pretty much at random, and you find the recurring motif of children some quite young, abandoning everything to get out of their culture. My guess is that the hopelessness of thinking that there's nothing better probably keeps that large number from being enormous.

My google-fu is weak. That particular search brought me many cases of children fleeing with the help of others - primarily family. That 'large number' of self-motivated children successfully escaping their own cultures and families looks to me like wishful thinking on your part.

I suspect that our own cultural meme of 'free will' has you believing that it applies to all people at all ages and stages of life, including the very young.

As I said before, his prosecution bothers me because, as nominal defenders of rights and equality, we should have given him his fair and speedy trial with suitable representation some time ago. The way a large number of things were handled were unjust. However, that does not speak to his guilt or innocence nor to his responsibility for his actions.

And, as I have said before, I do agree on that point. We shall have to agree to disagree on the the extent of the responsibility. You have yet to present a compelling argument that child soldiers have anything like meaningful choices to avoid participation in battle.