Remarkably, this image ties together the last few images - including both the death penalty images and the WWI British soldiers history!
Yesterday the Brits erected this statue. It's a man tied to a stake and blindfolded. It commemorates British "cowards" who were executed during WWI.
In 1917, many of the soldiers were suffering from post traumatic stress disorder, and couldn't fight even if it meant they would be tied to a stake and shot. 20,000 troops were court-martialed for this sort of refusal, and 306 of them were eventually executed.
The truth of the matter is that most of them were simply quitting a battle that couldn't be won - a battle against trench warfare that, as Tove pointed out, could not possibly be won until the tacticans figured a way around it. Their commanders should have been the ones at the stake.
Today, with the wisdom of time, we can see what we couldn't see at the time. Now we understand why the soldiers deserted; now we see their deaths as unjust and unnecessary. We understand what was in their heads, better than anyone at the time understood.
The statue is modeled after a 17-year-old soldier, who lied about his age to fight, right up until he was shot for refusing to fight any further.
80 years from now, four generations from now, mankind is going to have wisdom that we don't have today. What will we think about some of the things mankind is doing right now?