In recent years, a lot of attention has been given in the news, politics, and academia to the notion of “offenses” and “microaggressions” over numerous potential slights, offenses, and “triggers” that people claim to experience. Sometimes it seems as though individuals and groups everywhere are determined to find things to be offended about—and often find them. But is it healthy to be hypersensitive to any perceived offense?

Sometime in the 1960s, Israel became the first nation in the Middle East to possess a nuclear bomb. Thanks to assistance from France, Israel created a nuclear deterrent intended to allow the fledgling nation to survive while surrounded by nations that hate its existence. Opponents of Israel’s nuclear ambitions warned that these efforts could lead to a nuclear arms race in the Middle East. However, perhaps due in part to Israel’s efforts to intentionally avoid publicly acknowledging and flaunting its nuclear capability, that arms race never began.

Europeans have been talking about a common defense union for many years, but little has developed. That appears to be changing. Ursula von der Leyen was just reelected for another five-year term as President of the European Commission after nearly losing her job (CNN, July 18, 2024). In one speech, she profoundly observed that the next five years will define Europe’s place in the world for the next five decades.

Last weekend, former U.S. President Donald Trump was injured in an assassination attempt at a political rally. As widely reported, Mr. Trump was shot in the ear with a bullet that just barely missed his skull. The gunman was killed and at least one member of the audience present at the rally was also killed. The attack prompted President Biden to make a statement condemning political violence.

That bold statement is the title of a recent article published in the Telegraph (June 15, 2024). The article notes that, thanks to the Ukraine conflict, many nations are coming to understand that modern warfare is really an artillery war. He then cited Joseph Stalin’s reference to artillery as the “God of War.” The war in Ukraine uses “millions of shells and hundreds of thousands of rockets a year.”