Should soldiers die for a country?

I recently saw some photos of several Jap ships sunk in the Truk lagoon in Polynesian waters sunk by American bombing in WW2. Saw skulls of soldiers at the bottom of the sea and was nauseated. Everyone dies but - is this the way to die? For what and for whom? For some emperor, some PM, some industrialist who will make money out of the war.

The Jap sailors died this horrible death fighting USA - which is today Japan's biggest ally! Japs went and made friends with those who dropped atom bombs on them. The dollars did came from America, I admit.

The situation is same in India. As a Colonel, I was running around the jungles of Manipur looking for NSCN  crooks (Naga insurgents) , while government of India emissaries were having meetings with their chief abroad to have a treaty with those killers. A treaty which they finally did have. Imagine. Govt of India actually had a formal treaty with those who had been killing Indian soldiers for more than 20 years!

Are such governments worth dying for? 

And let us not say that soldiers die for the nation and not for any government. Nation is an abstract concept. What soldiers die for is a government order, signed by some under-secretary of the Ministry of Defence. If soldiers question that and refuse to go to battle, they would be court-martialled. The penalty of death to a person refusing to honour that order has not been kept there for nothing. That's the reality of nationalism and patriotism.

Does dying for others make sense? If one maintains that this is just one form of employment, I have no problem with it. One takes up a job for money and accept the risks inherent in it.

But to connect he death of soldiers with some concept of national spirit and commitment is dishonest doublespeak. We want them to die so that we ( the bosses in all segments of society ) may continue to live and make more and more money. We glorify the death of soldiers, purely for selfish reasons. If we don;t do that at periodic intervals, there might be no takers. Hence all this drama.
Only dacoits, revenge-seekers and revolutionaries die for a cause. Others die for money. Nothing wrong in it, but at least accept it.
I find my view echoed across time and globe. In the movie' Troy', I find warrior Achilles advising his friend 'Fight for yourself. Don't throw away your life for some fool (or some bum - my words)'.
Our own Ravana ( fictitious account - ASURA, by Anand Neelkantan) ) recounts the reality of death on a battlefield, when he lay dying, ' Bandicoots. Big dark hairy rats. They conquer the battlefields after foolish men have finished their business of killing each other'.
Do also read this one.

And, this too.
This, too, might make sense to you.