>>>>People react differently to such events even if they are parents. The majority of stories such as this one I see on television are as you describe. There are those parents who are proud and happy even when the body of their child is returned from Iraq in a box. They are in the minority of such stories on television but they exist.
>>>>
>>>>When Greece was at its peak of power in the ancient world, a mother from Sparta said to her son who was departing for a military campaign, “Do not return unless it is upon your shield”!
>>>
>>>Wasn't that: "Come back with this shield or on it"? What you said suggests the mother didn't want her son back at all unless dead.
>>
>>As a member of a military state you were expected to give your life for Sparta.
>
>Aye ... if necessary, but they didn't train men to be just suicide squads. Jeez, what happened when they beat the enemy outright, with thousands of men to spare? did they then go and throw themselves on their dead enemies' inert spears, just to ensure they didn't come back alive?
>
>I'm quite well versed in all this ancient Greek stuff, since an early age.

And you still remember it all after 2300+ years, since this Greek stuff was in its early age?

:)