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Well, considering that the ages when this was expected of political leaders were also far more violent and had far more endemic warfare than modern times, maybe this actually isn't a good idea.

the led the armies, but they also led the country. all of the risk and all of the reward.

Have you ever looked at how many American politicians are veterans? How many of them have children who are in the armed forces? It's certainly not universal, but they do have children who would be fighting their wars and they have fought in the last generation's wars.

I looked it up. 18% of congress is a veteran. 6.2% of the general population is.

These days...I'd put their leading financial backers (& children) on the front lines instead.

It is not that simple. For example, Hitler had no kids. And Stalin did, but he treated them indifferently and refused to save his son Yakov from German captivity.

Netanyahu's brother Yoni died in the Entebbe raid, didn't seem to make Binyamin a pacifist.

They won't. That's the problem, politicians and dictators don't see war the same way as civilians do.