54

Since the beginning of 2010, France has lost about twenty soldiers in an external theater of operations. This means there were no fewer than twenty occasions when the military authorities implemented the Hommages plan, paying respect to a soldier who had died for France, facilitating administrative procedures, and, most importantly, welcoming the deceased’s relatives! In the current climate of “victimization,” it is a delicate but necessary matter to explain to a devastated family that the person they are mourning died a hero.