War Panic and Reassurance

I heard a desperate mother calling in to a radio show, near tears about the need to stop war, afraid for her son who works in a daycare facility and sees children every day – she couldn’t imagine her boy or any of those children being asked to go to war and die.

The vast majority of the world wants peace. Most of us are non-aggressive. Look even locally, and you must be forced to admit that left to our own devices, we’re a peaceful race. When violent crime is measured in the “per 100,000 persons” category, it sounds much like “particles per million”. That is a very small percentage.

Unfortunately the very machines of war which limit our casualties (compare 2000 casualties in three years of Iraq with 91,000 casualties in the Pacific Theater of WW2) make it possible for those very small “particles per person” to cause very real damage amongst the rest of us.

I feel for the terrified mother. I am a father of three. I simply do not go down the road of emotion that would be called for should one of my children die – no matter what the circumstances. I would, however, try to soothe her fears by pointing out that we have an all volunteer military. While even amongst the volunteers there are those who feel they were pressured into it (though they usually feel strong enough to protest when faced with real danger) the overwhelming majority of our brave military want to be doing what they’re doing.

The only time a draft would be required, when the daycare specialist might be forced into the armed forces, would be if we did not act responsibly and proactively to limit the size and power of our enemies.

While this could ignite a conversation about the justification of projecting our will and power over others, that is not the thrust of this entry. This is merely to point out that the unreasoning, blank fear that is like a knee-jerk reaction for so many people can be met with calm reassurance.