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I mostly agree, but wasn't this part of acceptance into a scholarship program? I'd imagine they want to see aptitude beyond their age.

There are many ways to try and measure the aptitude of a 13 year old without putting the idea of supporting state sponsored murder into their heads and forcing them to defend it. I would argue that the possible damage done to a person at a very impressionable age by asking them to justify murder outweighs the vetting process for a scholarship.

> I don’t think anyone at that age can properly address this question

I guess it depends on what you mean by "properly" but there's absolutely no reason why a reasonably well educated child of that age shouldn't be able to both understand the nature of the question and make a decent stab at an answer.

If the Eton cadet force is like the one at my private school, that age is also when they start training you in the use of an actual rifle ...

(heavily locked down on a range, but you're definitely primed to support the military in this context!)