Yeah Amandla Stenberg, the black actress who was 12 when she was in the Hunger Games movie, was being asked what it was like to play a child with all the bad stuff happening, like how she made herself act like a child, and she replied "I am a child" , from the interviewer's reaction you could tell they were caught off guard, and weren't thinking of the fact that she was actually 12

It cancels out the bad karma of killing kids if you send kids to do it.

Everyone does. Perfect age for a war, brain is practically non-developed, but body pretty much is. Closest thing to a mindless drone that we can get without lobotomy, just with some propaganda.

The shitshow that is the IDF aside, 19 year olds are perfectly capable of being soldiers. Call me old-fashioned, but I honestly believe that being an adult with rights (e.g. to vote) in a democratic society also implies obligations to that society, and that the two (rights and obligations) should follow each other.

To be clear, what I mean is this: I live in a society that provides me with a solid social safety net, as well as a right to protection if shit hits the fan. I then think it's reasonable that I'm obliged to contribute to that safety net for others (in the form of taxes or community service), and protection (in the form of military service if shit hits the fan). Basically, it's an "all for one, one for all" mentality. We're all better off standing together, which means that we all take care of each other (via taxes etc.) in peacetime, and protect each other (in the form of military service) if necessary.

Since I believe that these rights and obligations should be balanced, I think it's reasonable that an 18 year old (which has all the rights of any other adult in my country) carries the same obligation as everyone else. It would be unfair if, say, 18-26 year olds got all the rights but none (or fewer of) the obligations. That immediately also opens the door to the question of which groups should bear the burden of the obligations, and which groups get only the rights.

Full disclaimer: I think the IDF deserves to be burnt to the ground. I also think (in general) that invading another country is, almost^1^ without exception, abhorrent.

^1^The exception being when you invade a country in defence of another country that has already been attacked, like when the UK attacked Germany in WWII, in defence of Poland, France, etc. without having been attacked themselves first.

Any mainstream news source?