A young man is the perfect soldier. He has great potential for aggression and a limited critical capacity—or none at all—with which to analyze it and judge how to channel it. Throughout history societies have found ways of using this store of aggression, turning their adolescents into soldiers, cannon fodder with which to conquer their neighbors or defend themselves against their aggressors.

Nothing feeds forgetfulness better than war.... We all keep quiet and they try to convince us that what we've seen, what we've done, what we've learned about ourselves and about others, is an illusion, a passing nightmare. Wars have no memory, and nobody has the courage to understand them until there are no voices left to tell what happened, until the moment comes when we no longer recognize them and they return, with another face and another name, to devour what they left behind.

Nada alimenta el olvido como una guerra, Daniel. Todos callamos y se esfuerzan en convencernos de lo que hemos visto, lo que hemos hecho, lo que hemos aprendido de nosotros mismos y de los demás, es una ilusión, una pesadilla pasajera. Las guerras no tienen memoria y nadie se atreve a comprenderlas hasta que ya no quedan voces para contar lo que pasó, hasta que llega el momento en que no se las reconoce y regresan, con otra cara y otro nombre, a devorar lo que dejaron atrás.

More or less everyone has lost someone, whatever side they belong to.

Nothing feeds forgetfulness better than war, Daniel. We all keep quiet and they try to convince us that what we've seen, what we've done, what we've learned about ourselves and about others, is an illusion, a passing nightmare. Wars have no memory, and nobody has the courage to understand them until there are no voices left to tell what happened, until the moment comes when we no longer recognize them and they return, with another face and another name, to devour what they left behind.p. 428

nations never see themselves clearly in the mirror, much less when war preys on their minds

Why is it that all wars are won by bankers?