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((WARNING: SPOILERS!))

If anyone has ever read the book "Private Peaceful", they will understand immediately, but for those of you who haven't, and I know there are more of you than those who have, then I will explain.

The story is told in first person through the eyes of the younger of two brothers, Tommo Peaceful. He grows up with his older brother, Charlie Peaceful, and is saved on numerous occasions by his brother. They meet Molly at school, and put her to the same test as they do everyone, to see whether or not they'll get along with her. At first, she is kind and caring to them both, and they feel they like her more than the other kids at school as a start, but when they introduce her to their brother, Big Joe, and see how kind she is to him as well, they are immediately sure that they love her.

Big Joe has mental problems from birth, and if anyone should treat him poorly, Tommo and Charlie refuse to befriend them. This is how Molly became a part of their family from the very beginning, and both brothers fell in love with her. She was 2 years older than Tommo, and 1 year younger than Charlie.

She would visit them every day, and when they got in trouble, her parents forbid her from seeing them anymore, claiming that the Peaceful family was a family of criminals, which wasn't true. Even so, they were somewhat less observant of Tommo as they were of Charlie, being that Tommo had never committed a criminal offense himself, so Tommo acted as the messenger between Charlie and Molly, and soon found that they were in love. It wasn't until Molly was kicked out of her home for being pregnant with Charlie's son that Tommo found out how close they really were, and he felt utterly left out.

When the war came to their village at last, Tommo and Charlie were sent off to war without much choice: it was either fight for their country or lose their home. When they arrived at camp, they were in for some rugged training with many soldiers they had already known from school. Charlie was the "big brother" of the group, and cheered everyone up when they were down, stood up for his comrades and what he thought was right, and didn't back down for anyone. He kept the entire group going, even when they were sent to the front line.

Throughout the war, conditions were terrible. The soldiers suffered from a constant onslaught of shells and grenades, poison gas and invasions. Not only that, but they all had trench foot, the rats were terrible, and they had to burn the lice off with the ends of cigarettes, which resided all over their bodies, in their clothes and under their skin.

Many of them died in no-man's land, and those that weren't were kept sane by Charlie mainly, who seemed to be unaffected by the whole thing and brought strength to his group.

In the end, Tommo suffered a head wound and passed out, and a grenade had landed near him and thrown dirt over his body, burying him alive, and Charlie dug him up and saved him, dragging him to a nearby abandoned trench. Their lieutenant ordered for them to invade the next trench, but Charlie refused, saying it was a suicidal order as they were surrounded on all sides by the enemy, and also saying that Tommo needed him.

The lieutenant was furious with Charlie for his disobedience, and so Charlie was given the death penalty for being a coward. The court believed the lieutenant wholeheartedly, and wouldn't allow Charlie to call in any witnesses, so the case was closed in less than an hour, and Charlie was given the unfair death penalty.

When Tommo spoke to Charlie for the last time, Charlie wouldn't have any tears from Tommo, and told him he wanted to think of nice things before he died, so they talked about Molly, Big Joe, and little Tommo ((Charlie's son who was named after his brother, Tommo)), and sang Oranges and Lemons until their 20 minutes was up.

When it came time for Charlie to be shot, he walked to his spot bravely, with his head held high and a grin on his face. As he was lined up, he refused to have a hood put over his head, and he looked to the sky and sang Oranges and Lemons until the shots were fired, dying with a smile still on his face.

This story was written in dedication to all of the soldiers who lost their lives on account of being cowards, but were in fact brave until the end. There were many cases of this in the war, and none of them ever had a proper chance to defend themselves in court.

I wish that more people would read this type of story so that they would realize how horrible war really is. There is no glory in it, and those who return home from the front line are never themselves again. They can't function as civilians any longer, and many go crazy from it. There are so many innocent people, good people who are killed in the war, and their fate is brought upon them by those who start the wars.

It's not those few people who fight the wars and lose their lives, no, it's the millions of good people willing to defend their homeland who die, and they aren't the ones who wished for a war to begin with. It's just too bad that more people don't see this...

I wanted to change my username to Molly Peaceful to honor all of the soldiers like Tommo and Charlie, Little Les and Pete and all the rest. Stories like theirs make me wonder why the world is the way it is, and I want to remember those who fight the wars, not those who get their names in the history book.

If I could, I'd visit all of the memorials for these soldiers and pray for them. They deserve to be remembered, not the ones who had them killed.