If some fallen soldiers are "heroes", then all fallen soldiers are heroes. Including those on the opposing side.

My opinion about it: someone is not a "hero" because he happens to get killed in combat. He's just somebody who had the bad luck to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, that's all.

Such people are called "heroes" by governments and media in order to drum up public enthusiasm to send more young people out to get killed, but the fact is the soldiers who fall in battle or the firefighters or cops who fall on duty are no better or worse than the rest of us. They're just the ones who drew the short straw when the time came.

To say this is to cast a very cynical glance on the legitimacy of all wars. And I do.