My Uncle's father "joined" the Soviet military during WW2, his unit was forced to retreat to Russia during Operation Barbossa, but he was also part of the counter attack, Operation Uranus. His unit was part of a group that reached his old village, only it wasn't there any more. When he asked neighboring villages of the whereabouts of his family, neighbors, etc., they all said the same thing. Everyone was killed and buried in a mass grave. After he reached Berlin, his CO told him he could go home to which he responded he didn't have one anymore. Just so happens, he was educated and spoke English and one US soldier told him of a pacifist group of Russians in the USA, which he had heard of, but didn't know they resided there. He went back to his CO, gave him his gun and said he would never pick up one again and told him he was going to join the pacifist Russians in the US. His response, God be with you and I hope you find peace from this awful mess.
My wife is Persian, but her family was on the Russian side of the border, during the Revolution. Her great grandfather, was the leader of a village. I don't know if it was the White's, the Red's or Green's...it doesn't matter. They gathered the village and shot him in cold blood and told everyone to run or they were next. They had to cross a treacherous river, the current was so strong, a father lost an infant.
One member of our church was in the Korean War, he was doing guard duty after a recent but won battle. But one of the people he killed still had their eyes open and it was like they kept looking at each other. He eventually turned the corpse over. After the war, he was assigned to an embassy and during a social, two Russian Generals saw his last name and told him that its Russian. He replied that he knew and much of his family belonged to a peace church. They flat out told him he did not belong there and would ask his superiors for permission to take him to his people in Russia so he would know this was not what his life should be. They refused of course, but he did not renew his enlistment and never owned a gun again and was an advocate for pacifism.
A great uncle of mine went to Russia to find if we still had relatives left in the village we emigrated from prior to the Revolution. Once there, he asked. And was told the last of our name went to Afghanistan and never came back.
Neighbor of mine before he moved, told me a lot of what he saw in Iraq. And had to desensitize himself from it, I'll say no more about it.
And in this war, I'm following a few twitter feeds. Russian APC blows up a civilian car which was no threat. Occupants killed. A Russian soldier surrenders, obviously someone who wants no part of this, but angry Ukranian soldiers decide to make an example out of him, and fill him up with unaccountable amount of bullets. Mass grave in Maripoul, where dead civilians are tossed in and buried, some obviously very young. One of the people putting people into the grave "why did these stupid politicians decide to start this war, this was all avoidable by both sides". I agree.
My father was a conscientious objector during the Vietnam war. The previous Minister thar married us was in jail during WW2 for refusing the draft. The one before him, was in jail during WW1 for the same.
Someone I knew way back in High School said his uncle was in Vietnam, they raided a village, there was a pretty girl and held a gun to her head and demanded a blow job. During the course of it, she bit him and he fired his gun into her head. And the sick part, he thought it was funny because as he was wiping the blood off his penis it looked like he was jerking off.
Call me a coward, unpatriotic or whatever you like. I'm used to it, but never lecture to me the horror that is war.
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