War: Are you a victim or beneficary?

I am openly offended when people use their war experiences to earn money. Yes, it was terrible, probably lifechanging, but its not an excuse to earn money off it. I hadn´t even realized how many books about war are written, it´s taking advantage of a tragedy for humanity. People use the excuse "I want people to know my story, it shouldn´t happen again", but after twenty books on the same topic, it becomes like United State´s Civil War; boring.

The people in the following citation:

"The nicest veterans in Schenectady, I thought, the kindest and funniest ones, the ones who hated war the most, were the ones who had really fought"

...were probably patriots, possibly offered service before being requested. This context reminds me of the movie "Captain America", where Steven Rogers offered military service and was turned down  four different times due to health problems, yet his strive to aid his country is admirable. Vonnegut also discusses the Children´s Crusade, in which supposedly 30,000 children volunteered to be sent to Palestine, but were really sold into slavery (never proven to be completely true). These are all examples of volunteers for the greater good, but some unfortunately ended in a negative way.

Even though Billy had been in WWII many years before the narrative, I find it hard to forget what I´d consider one of the most astonishing moments of his life.I believe he really wants to remember, not only to write the book, but because the feeling of involuntarily forgetting memories should be confusing. Nevertheless, it seems Billy is certain war is terrible. He urges his children never to be part of anything related to war, so he must at least remember some of the horrors, because if not he´s only pleasing society by disapproving it, it´s how we´re supposed to consider it.

Finally, Mary´s comment about the way Billy will write the book is more than valid. Guns give people power, they´ve been splattering blood all over history. But most authors write as victims (Anne Frank, Elie Wiesel, etc.) Nowadays, there are other ways in which war is promoted. Video games, movies, newscast, etc. are some of the innumerable ways war begins to engulf us. I can´t help but consider The Book Thief, by Markus Zusak. The story is introduced by a very original narrator, Death. It also develops during WWII, but the originaity of the book is that we can observe a very different point of view, neither victim nor soldiers, but omniscient with Death´s opinion.