Tragic. They should be spending their golden years relaxing in cafes or seeing their grandkids. Instead they’re fighting an unwinnable war for a ruling class that doesn’t care about them. A tale as old as time, but no less sad.

Whenever I see a photo like this, I try to assume that they are not true believers, just conscripts who were otherwise going on with their lives or maybe even oppose the war but forced to fight. I don’t know what I would do in that situation.