Oh, they should be honoured, Daylia, no question about that, as should all brave soldiers. I think that their thoughts were probably similar to the thoughts in the minds of all the young soldiers who trooped off to war for the fighting nations in WWI.

My grandmother was a young woman living in Vienna when WWI broke out. She said that the whole country was filled with an absolute avalanche of patriotic fervour at the time. People poured out into the city streets to cheer the young Austrian soldiers who were marching off to war. They showered them with flowers, tears, embraces, and cheers. They waved flags. She said it was like the most giant celebration. There didn't appear to be one ordinary person in Austria-Hungary who did not believe that the war was being fought for the noblest of reasons, to defeat the Serbian rebellion, for defence of the homeland against the Russians and Italians, and against other enemies who had to be defeated...and would be...and in short order......for the sake of peace, freedom, liberty, and national survival!

This was the mood prevalent among Austro-Hungarians, French, Germans, Russians, Serbs, Italians, and British soldiers and civilians...and later among Americans when they belatedly went off to war as well.

Young men have a number of reasons for willingly serving in a war and risking their lives.

1. normal patriotism
2. they want to "do their bit" (like the others)
3. they want to challenge the odds and become "men" (gain self-respect and self-confidence and maybe even some glory)
4. they want to "save their country" from a foreign threat and "protect their homes and families"
5. they don't want to be seen as cowards or wimps
6. they figure it will be an exciting adventure
7. it gives them something to do
8. it's a job, you get paid, you get a uniform and training, and you get to handle advanced weaponry...all this is pretty impressive to a boy just coming out of his adolescence
9. it's your "duty" to serve your country
10. for some, it becomes a professional military career...if there is a family tradition of doing that, then that will be a very strong influence.

Governments know this, and they use all of the above factors to motivate the young to go out and slaughter one another.

In my grandmother's case, her society lost that war. Their monarchy was destroyed and their nation sundered into fragments. Their economy was devastated. Their money became worthless. In the final year of the war people had gone beyond eating their pets and anything else they could scrounge, and were eating rats. In the light of that, it made a mockery of the innocent patriotic fervour of 1914.

People in the victorious nations tend to be shielded from the sort of giant wake-up call that hits people in the defeated nations after a war, and it's easy for them to later believe grandiose propaganda that tells them stuff like..."If it wasn't for---------(whatever)--------you'd all be speaking German!"...and...."our boys died so you could live in peace and freedom".

I note that no population in any conquered country anywhere in modern times has changed their native language following a defeat in a major war.... ;-D Nor has peace ever been anything but temporary...

As for freedom, it's a relative thing. Some are indeed freer than others. Most are not as free as they might honestly wish to be.